About A Girl
by FullWolfMoonGirl
Summary: River Song and the Doctor have a child. Except the Doctor doesn't know it. Amy and Rory are completely confused. And hurting. This probably won't go well. Or maybe it will! Doctor/River, Amy/Rory.
1. Just A Girl

**Takes place some time in the current season even though it is definitely AU.**

**There will be some Doctor/River. There will also be some Amy/Rory with hurt/comfort going on for these two. It's a love fest all around! Sort of. More chapters soon!**

**Please Review. Thank you!  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"Rory!" The Doctor's muffled voice called out from under the console.<p>

"Yeah, I know. The couplings. Getting them." Rory called back, glancing over at his wife. Amy was sitting in a chair looking over a video book from the 30th Century. Rory suspected it contained information about the 'hot' Italians by the way she was staring at it with such concentration. He wasn't jealous though. Not this time because they were married now and she really had changed. She loved him, of this he was certain.

Satisfied that all was well, he ambled toward the stairs to collect the couplings.

Sometimes it felt as though his only purposes while on board the TARDIS was to collect the couplings, look after stunned newcomers, and stand around looking pretty for Sexy.

Yeah, that last one had been thrown in his face more than once by the Doctor. Rory couldn't decide if the Doctor was teasing him, or actually jealous. It would have been nice to see Amy a bit jealous now and again, but Amy found the entire thing hilarious.

As soon as he disappeared downstairs, a bright flash of light appeared near the door and a girl tumbled through it. She landed on the TARDIS floor with a light thump. It happened so quickly that nobody on board knew what was going on.

Startled, Amy dropped the book and jumped to her feet. The Doctor rolled himself out from under the console. He squinted up and sideways at the strange figure now waving her hand wildly about.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" She couldn't have been older than fifteen. She jumped up and danced around in circles. Only then did Amy realize the girl was surrounded by smoke. Amy ran to get some water.

By the time she returned with a large glass full, the Doctor was on his feet and the girl was flinging a very melted, and still somewhat smoking, vortex manipulator onto the floor.

Amy doused the device with some of the water then stepped toward the girl. "Are you hurt?"

The girl was rubbing her reddened wrist, but shook her head. The Doctor scanned her with the sonic screwdriver, peered at it, then at her. "First degree burns. Very painful things, but they should heal easily enough. Do you usually go flying around the vortex on your own like this?" He sounded more amused than annoyed.

Rory was now standing at the top step holding the couplings and silently watching the events unfold.

The girl shook her head of dark, curly hair and gave him a look that nobody, not even the Doctor himself, could quite interpret.

"I had to do it! You _know_ how she gets! She didn't give me any choice!" She sauntered past the Doctor and Amy as if she were perfectly at home here in the TARDIS. All three adults stared at her in various states of surprise and confusion. She took no notice of them. "She never gives me any choice."

The girl flopped into a chair and started reaching down to pull off her muddy sneakers. "It's not like I have a little blue box like you do. It's fine for you, you can go wherever you like! But me, stuck in that horrible place all the time, what did you expect?" She sighed as she examined her wrist while tossing one sneaker, than the other, sloppily onto the floor.

"Uh, Doctor?" Rory questioned from the stairs, holding a hand up as the other gripped the couplings.

"Right." The Doctor clapped his hands together, rubbing them vigorously. He then pointed toward Rory. "Rory, go put the couplings back, I don't need them after all." _Then what was the point in asking me to fetch them? _Sometimes the Doctor's logic was lost on those around him.

Rory only hesitated a moment before turning and obediently heading back downstairs. It was hard to irritate him. Even making him an errand boy and sending him on pointless errands didn't seem to wear on his patience the way it would almost anyone else.

He didn't bother to correct the Doctor. What to do with the couplings hadn't been the question on his mind. But he supposed the question he did have, would have been too obvious to bother to ask in the first place.

The Doctor was bent down now, poking at the sizzling remains of the vortex manipulator. Amy stood still, watching the girl. "You don't look surprised." She pointed out. Amy didn't look entirely comfortable with the ease with which the girl moved about the TARDIS.

The girl slid her sock clad feet back and forth in front of her on the bare floor in a light pattern while leaning back in the chair. She barely glanced at Amy.

"Is there ever anything _not_ to be surprised about with_ him _around?" She shot a look at the Doctor. He didn't appear to notice it. He wasn't he looking at her. But he did very much notice the look. It looked like she was blaming him for something._ But what_?

She nodded to herself and hopped out of the chair, not really expecting an answer to her question.

She stepped over to the console and peered at it. "We're still in the vortex, yeah? That's what that thing means." She asked, pointing to a particular nozzle that was moving. The Doctor abandoned his examinations of the melted device and moved over protectively toward the console. He didn't particularly like strangers touching the TARDIS.

"Yes, it does." He drawled out his words, moving his arms over the surface of the console in a passive attempt to block the controls from her view. His eyes locked onto hers and to Amy it looked as if it took a great deal of effort for the Time Lord to keep his curiosity from spilling over into a frantic state.

"But how would _you_ know that?" He finished in a barely restrained voice.

"You think I'd..." _Forget?_ She frowned. "I'm not entirely stupid, you know." Sounding slightly offended, she moved around him easily and tapped a button. The Doctor looked unhappy about this. She spun around and pointed at him. "You won't take me back there will you?" An edge of worry suddenly to her voice.

"Back where?" The Doctor's tone held a tinge of accusation.

"You know how to pilot the TARDIS. _How_ do you know how to pilot the TARDIS?" Amy demanded of the girl. The Doctor thought about pointing out the fact that the girl didn't and couldn't possibly know how to pilot the TARDIS just because she got a couple of lucky guesses. Of course she couldn't pilot the TARDIS! What a silly thing for her to even suggest! But he, too, was aware that the girl's comfort level while in his TARDIS seemed far too...Comfortable.

"You know, Amelia, that is an excellent question." He added, watching her. "Just how do you know anything about my TARDIS, or me and who is this_ she _we're supposed to know about?"

All at once, the color drained from the girl's face. So quickly it drained that the Doctor was slightly concerned she might faint. She turned slowly to face Amy. She looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. "But..." She turned back to the Doctor. The way he was looking at her, made her apprehensive. He was watching her not only with curiosity but with suspicion. She wasn't used to it.

As Rory reappeared, the girl looked from one baffled face to the other and started to back away. She'd gone from acting like the most confident person in the TARDIS to looking very much like a scared child.

She raced over to the remains of the vortex manipulator and picked it up. She pulled it on her wrist and pressed desperately at the seared buttons. _Take me anywhere else. Anywhere else! _She silently commanded it. They didn't know her, but they should. This was not good. _Not at all_.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Another chapter will be up before you know it.<em>**


	2. One Wrong Word

**Thank you guys so much for your reviews! You help keep me writing! Please keep reviewing and I'll keep trying to update this story fairly frequently if at all possible. Which is saying a lot for me, as I'm usually a slow poke.**

* * *

><p>"No, wait!" Amy called to her. She started toward her. The girl involuntarily backed away from her. That didn't deter her. "Tell us who you are and why you're in the TARDIS? Why are you hopping all about time and space with that thing?" She demanded, pointing at her wrist. She knew by Amy's tone that she wouldn't let this go.<p>

The girl's green eyes flickered back over to the Doctor. His eyes were slightly narrowed. He was staring at her as if he already knew all of her secrets and didn't trust her in the least little bit.

She quickly looked down at her wrist again, willing herself not to let him get to her. Her hands were trembling so much so that she didn't even care that her wrist was burning or that she felt as if she were recovering from the flu or something. Her mother had warned her traveling with the vortex manipulator was a rough experience. It was one of the many reasons why she refused to allow her to do so. Too bad she had failed to listen to her.

She dared a glance at Rory. The only person in the TARDIS she knew she could rely on to not turn on her. He shifted from one foot to another, watching her as he had been before, but looking slightly sympathetic as his wife stood before her waiting for answers. The girl wanted to hug the pair of them.

She swallowed hard and tried to think of what to do next. She couldn't tell them the truth. Especially not while they were traveling with _him_. _Mum's rules_.

She twisted the device on her wrist and pushed a button. Would it ever work again? It wasn't doing anything. _They don't know me yet...I have to get out of here!_

She looked down at her wrist again. The vortex manipulator loosely fitted around her skin. She tapped in her own date and time and pressed the activation button.

Nothing happened.

"That really won't work. It's disabled." The Doctor spoke up. He didn't sound angry or annoyed, like she feared he might.

"Doctor, didn't you say those things were dangerous? She could get herself killed and it looks like she almost already did!" Amy on the other hand, did sound annoyed._ Very_.

She wasn't sure if the Doctor had done something more to the vortex manipulator to disable it, or if he just meant it was disabled because the flames of the vortex had damaged it. She wouldn't put it past him to disable it without her noticing. But at the moment she was more concerned with what Amy would do to her.

She'd heard tales of this younger version of Amy Pond and the stories usually ended with Rory insisting it was too violent a tale to finish telling her.

"Well? You could've been killed! What do you have to say about yourself?" Amy looked like she might very well charge at her. The red head's eyes were full of unspoken threats. She chewed on her bottom lip, unsure of how to deal with these questions.

"I don't mind a terrifying death scare myself." The Doctor's voice was relaxed, disarming. It was a welcoming distraction for her. "Tomorrow was never any good without at least one good death scare and yesterday I'm due for one, too." She looked up at the rambling Doctor. He smiled at her. "Gives the hearts a workout."

She offered up a weak smile, still looking like a scared rabbit caught in a trap.

The Doctor casually stepped over to slide slightly in front of Amy. He'd placed himself between Amy and the girl. Amy wouldn't harm her, but he could see by the look of worry on the girl's face that Amy's shouting wasn't helping matters.

"Hang on." Rory stepped over and stood beside his wife, but he didn't look in the least bit threatening. "You seem to know something about the TARDIS. That must mean you've been in the TARDIS before. But-"

"Spoilers." The girl threw the word out instinctively, fearful that Rory was already somehow catching on to who she was. But as the word was leaving her mouth, she instantly regretted it. This wouldn't go over too well. She knew it before she dared look at them.

Amy's eyes got as wide as dinner plates. Her mouth fell open. Rory retrieved one of his more animated expressions, which was saying a lot for the normally stoic man. The Doctor's eyebrows shot up as he stared her down.

She looked from one astonished face to the next.

How could she have been so stupid? They all knew that word. They would all know who it came from. Now how would she ever be able to pretend to be a stranger?

All three of them spoke up at once. It wasn't difficult for her to make out what they were each saying because they all said the exact same thing.

"River?"

She vehemently wished she was. At least then she would have known what to do. Her mother always knew what to do.

"Um."

The girl gulped. She was shaking from head to foot. She didn't know what to say. She hadn't expected this to happen. Any time she had ever seen the Doctor, he knew who she was. He was supposed to always know her, wasn't he? Especially considering who he was _to_ her!

She just assumed he always would know who she was. Why hadn't her mother ever told her this?

The Doctor pointed at her, his hand waving up and down in a jerking motion. He looked stunned. "Melody!"

She blinked at the name she rarely heard.

"_Melody_ Pond! Again! But clearly very different. Here you are before you were who you were. Or rather, who you are." He paused before continuing on excitedly. "Or actually, who you _will_ be." He rambled on. "But what are you doing here...?" He didn't sound any less baffled than he had when he didn't have a clue as to who she was. Although his current clue was slightly off mark.

Understanding about how delicate her current situation was, dawned on her all too painfully. She did everything within her power not to let it show. "Oh! Uh..." Should she correct them? If they didn't even know that much, telling them they were wrong probably wasn't a good idea either.

"I'm..."

_Jessica Amelia Song._ But she couldn't very well tell them that! Her mother had warned her about these things. Revealing too much before it was known could create catastrophic results. Named for her grandmother, only in reverse. She was sure they would pick up on that if she said so.

But she was trapped here and she wasn't sure what letting them think she was her own mother would do either.

Jessica took a shaky breath and held her wrist out toward the Doctor. "Can you please fix it? I...I have to go. _Really_ have to go." She gave him her most pleading look.

He scowled and bent to peer directly into her eyes. She met his gaze full on, unflinching in spite of her pounding heart.

"You're afraid." He observed.

She had to be River. As much as he didn't understand why she was here, now, when he'd already met her as Mels and seen her turn into River, he knew her time line was a challenging one. But she didn't look like the little girl in the space suit either. Perhaps this had been an incarnation between those two? Or before them?

It still didn't make much sense to him. She knew the console and TARDIS. She tossed her shoes off at first chance, much as River had done before. She had an air of confidence about her that matched River Song's.

But he hadn't expected her to appear, and he certainly didn't think she would be this scared here. She was programmed to kill him, not fear him. He'd never seen her anything less than comfortable inside the TARDIS until now. "You're safe here. You _know _we won't hurt you."

Jessica nodded and couldn't help but offer up a somber smile at that. She did indeed know. The Doctor would go out of his way to harm himself before he would allow harm to befall her.

Her smile quickly vanished as current circumstances made it impossible for her to not feel despondent. There was the trouble of serious danger for all if her secrets were revealed too soon.

"Please? I need to leave. I can't...It isn't...I'm not supposed to be here."

"But you _are_ here. What better time to be here than now?" The Doctor pointed out. He had a wide smile that would have put her at ease had she not been worried about making a twisted mess of an already twisted mess.

Her mother hadn't told her anything about how to handle the Doctor should he demand she stay when in such a situation! Of course, her mother never expected her to be in just such a situation. She wasn't supposed to be here. She wasn't even supposed to be using a vortex manipulator. The trouble she was in went beyond what she was normally capable of managing.

And it was all entirely her own fault.

"I have to return to my..." She looked beyond him to the couple standing there watching her with the same bemused looks. She gazed first at Rory then Amy, and then back again. _Grandparents. _She'd seen them young like this before, but they had known her then. They didn't know her yet. "My..." She swallowed down a lump in her throat. "I don't belong here."

"Okay." The Doctor suddenly whirled around and over to the console, dancing around it gracefully. "We'll just drop you off home then." He paused to look over at her expectantly. He was testing her. She knew it. He didn't know she knew it, but then, he didn't know her. _Yet_.

Jessica had known the moment he so easily seemed to give up on getting answers from her. The second he waltzed back over to the console and started fidgeting. He had no intentions of just letting her go home without finding out more about all of this. She saw that look in his eyes. That 'I've decided to step in and see what this is all about' look he so often got.

Then he asked her another dangerous question.

"Where is it you _do_ belong?"


	3. Amy

**I really appreciate you guys and your reviews! Thank you _so_ much! I really do keep inspired to write when I receive reviews. I may not always update so promptly, but I will try to keep things rolling along here. **

**jellybean - Yes, River will be showing up in this story as promised when it's time for her. She has some very important things to take care of!**

**Sidenote: I feel that Amy in particular hasn't been given very much opportunity in the series to deal with losing her child which is why I felt compelled to give some attention to her in my story. And to Rory. So for those of you basically waiting to find out what happens next with Jessica and the Doctor, my apologies, but you will find out soon!  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Amy folded her arms across her chest, wondering at the girl. Was this really Melody? Her daughter? Again? But she'd raised her as Mels. Could this be the girl who would regenerate into a toddler in New York? She really didn't know. Something felt off to her, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.<p>

Her mother's instincts were telling her this didn't feel right. But she pushed it aside as there was nothing she could do about it.

After all, it was hard to put a fix on something this traumatic. Her baby girl stolen away and raised up to be a homicidal psychopath. There was little she could do about it without ultimately destroying River Song's existence. Even if she wanted to do that, the Doctor had his own plans about things and wouldn't let her.

As much as she loathed her child growing up into a killer and a criminal, River seemed genuinely happy for the most part and lived a spectacular life. She liked who River was, aside from when she tried to kill the Doctor. And it would be like killing her should she dare to try to step across the lines and change what was meant to be for Melody.

It hurt, but Amy tried to convince herself she was a strong woman and could handle this if it was for her child's sake. But she still wasn't sure what to make of this version of Melody.

Her baby, Melody, was her best friend, Mels. Who was also River Song. _And_ this teenager? All those years growing up with her daughter right there with her and never realizing it. All those mistakes she felt she made as a parent. She wasn't using proper judgment because she'd only been a child herself and unaware of who Mels truly was.

But all she could see were the mistakes she'd made. That her daughter had the unique advantage of seeing her parents mistakes as they grew up didn't feel right either. The things they did and shouldn't have. Had she known what she knew now, she would have done things differently. But would she have done them better?

Why couldn't she just go back to when she had her vulnerable and tiny infant in her arms and run away with her? If she could just go back and hide her and keep her safe, none of this would have happened. If she did that, River might not _be_, but Melody would. Melody would be amazing too, wouldn't she?

All those missed moments. Those mother and daughter moments. The Doctor probably thought it was perfectly okay that she'd 'raised' her child as a child herself, right along side herself and her future husband without knowing that was what she was doing. He probably didn't think how difficult this was for her. He had ignored her concerns about her baby having a Time Head. He'd laughed at them! But she'd been right.

Her instincts were screaming at her to force him to go back and find Melody as an infant, but she couldn't do it. She knew she wouldn't. She would be responsible for basically killing River Song if she did that. But did the Doctor truly understand the trauma he'd put them all through?

Could he know how much she ached to pull her child into her arms and never let go? Was there any way he thought about the dreams and nightmares she had? Dreams where she got to see her child's first steps, hear her first words, see her off to her first day at school, be there to comfort her during her first heartbreak? The nightmares of shooting at her daughter in the spacesuit and then nearly shooting her adult daughter later on, haunted her. The horrors that haunted her sleeping and wakeful mind as she nearly attacked and demanded answers from a little girl who she should have known was hers, were immeasurable. The nightmares of thinking of Melody growing up in a cold, lonely existence while being brainwashed by monsters felt like an enormous weight on Amy's shoulders. Was it even possible for someone like the Doctor to comprehend the anguish she was feeling?

Did he understand the pain of seeing the detached River Song pointing guns at people and living in a storm cage? It was her daughter and as hard as it was for her to wrap her mind around that fact, she did love her. She didn't want to cause her any pain by breaking the already very broken time lines of Melody Pond, also known as River Song.

Even loyal, faithful, ever loving Rory couldn't fully comprehend the pain she was in. He tried, very hard. He had been there after the Doctor took off. For hours upon hours he'd listened to Amy with endless patience. Her anger, her confusion, her rage, her pain. He was the only one giving her real hope as the months past by and there had been no sign of the Doctor. He hadn't questioned her a single bit when she demanded that they find a way to contact the Doctor and make him listen. Rory had been right there helping her plot out the crop circles, never once did his trust in her decision to do so falter for a single instance.

She loved him deeply. Not just for his compassionate heart, but for everything about him. Even his quiet demeanor. But even Rory couldn't put an end to her heartache. Not when it ran this deep.

She couldn't seem to take her eyes off of Jessica.

She didn't feel right about anything anymore. Sometimes it was hard to keep on as if all was well and go on fun adventures. How could she continue having fun with this metaphoric knife digging into her heart?

She kept letting herself slip back into denial. It felt safe, easy there. She avoided and ignored the pain because there wasn't anything she could do about it. But it was slightly more difficult to do that when it was literally staring her in the face.

After the Doctor started moving about the console, Amy could stand this no longer.

Images of the baby torn away from her filled her vision. The flesh avatar of her infant melting against her as she clung desperately to the blanket the child had been wrapped so lovingly into, wouldn't leave her vision.

"I...I-I can't..." The Doctor glanced at her and Rory turned to her. The girl just continued to stare mostly at the Doctor and look nervous. Amy wanted to run. To scream. To shout out at the Universe for abusing her so horrendously.

She wasn't perfect. Far from it. But what had she ever done that was terrible enough to take away her daughter and leave her arms and heart so empty?

Her eyes filled with tears.

She turned abruptly and raced up the TARDIS stairs. She had to get away.

She closed herself inside Rory and her bedroom, and sank onto the edge of the bed, letting her tears fall unchecked.


	4. Regrets

**Amy and Rory are not forgotten. Back to them soon! **I'm happy others understand and see the importance of giving Amy her time. Too bad the show hasn't done the same. At least not so far, but maybe they will go there again. I'm hopeful!**  
><strong>

**Thanks again for the reviews! You all encourage me even when I can barely manage to write a few sentences much less finish a chapter, but onwards I go in thanks to you!**

** Reviews are loved!**

* * *

><p>"Amy!"<p>

Rory propelled himself after Amy. If Jessica had gauged just how quickly it took her grandfather to race after her grandmother, she was certain he was beating some sort of intergalactic record.

She didn't like seeing them hurting like this, but she was confident about Rory looking after Amy.

Life had taught her four important lessons. Her mother lied. Her father lied. Her grandmother was tough. And her grandfather would easily die a thousand deaths before he could stand for his wife to suffer one ounce of excess pain.

This situation wasn't getting any easier for her.

She belonged in hell. Not literally, but in upper Leadworth, living in the home of her grandparents and enjoying a nice, fairly normal life. But normal never really seemed to work out.

Not that she cared for the nice, normal life. Not when she'd gotten a taste for what lay beyond it.

But nobody listened to her and now she finally understood why.

Her mother insisted she remain in Leadworth apart from a handful of TARDIS trips here and there, most of which weren't exactly expected, but happened anyway. Her grandparents told her she wasn't missing anything and tried to get her to focus on friends, family, school, and life in a small town. Her mother left her stranded in that boring little town, and she hadn't been able to stand it!

All three ganged up on her early on. They told her she was putting herself and all of them in danger should she try for any sort of life other than ordinary. She didn't understand why she couldn't have an extraordinary life like her mother or her father. Her mother and grandparents all went on about how great an opportunity she had and that she shouldn't take it for granted.

But they had all already had their day with the Doctor. They'd traveled extensively with him and experienced the joys, the wonders, all of it. So, why couldn't she?

The Doctor was staring after Amy with a strained look. For a moment, she thought he would also go after her. Instead, he focused his attention back on her. She wouldn't have minded had he went after Amy too. It would have saved her a lot of trouble.

He was still waiting for an answer.

She couldn't ask to be taken directly home or his suspicions about her would be raised even more so. She couldn't ask to be taken to her mother who was either with another version of him, on adventures of her own, or possibly in a storm cage.

She was already causing problems just by being here. She had seen enough in her grandmother's young face as the red head retreated so fast. She was in pain because of her presence here. Jessica felt sick because of it. Maybe they were all right. Maybe she should have stuck with upper Leadworth after all. _I never should have come here. _

For the first time in her life, she wished she had listened to her mother.

"Well?" The Doctor's hand was on the scanner and he was bent around it, watching her.

"Spain." She blurted out. She didn't even think about it. Her grandparents would find a way to get her back to England. Her older, wiser grandparents who had already lived this journey. She could rely on them. They were stable and comforting. "I'd like to go to Spain please."

_This _pair made her feel as if she were the one who needed to be the grandparent or parent. She really didn't belong here at all and she felt terrible for having made such a horrible mistake.

She had to get out of here. She didn't stop to think about the fact that she didn't look particularly Spanish. Her hair may have been dark, but her skin was pale. She also didn't speak Spanish.

The Doctor lifted an eyebrow at her answer, but didn't respond with any questions. He flicked a switch and typed in a few coordinates before pulling the hand break.

He tossed her yet another enigmatic smile that only caused her to become more wary. He tugged at a lever while he mulled things over.

Amy had run out of the console room as though she were being pursued by demons. She was in a way, he supposed. The guilt he felt every time he looked at her overwhelmed every part of him, most of all his hearts. Had he not destroyed her life so thoroughly, she wouldn't need to have her heart broken so ceaselessly.

He had to take care of this Melody problem. He wouldn't just drop her off in Spain. Normally he would, but something was wrong this time. This _wasn't _a situation that shouldn't be tampered with.

Being able to see all of time and space, he could see she was out of place and not in the usual way. Even for her.

He had seen Rory sprint after Amy, but he left them to their troubles. He couldn't help them with any comforting words. He had to _do _things. He had things _to_ do. He only wished he knew exactly what those things were. He had plans. Plenty of them. But none of them seemed to lead to a pain-easing conclusion for his friends.

Glancing over at the girl he could only assume was Melody Pond, he continued to smile at her. No need in creating further problems by being unpleasant with her. This wasn't her fault. This was _his_. He took full responsibility for how he entered his best friends' lives and turned them upside down, inside out, and completely out of their normal rhythms.

He really didn't fully know what Amy or even Rory was going though. Mostly because he refused to allow himself to stop and think on it. He was a man of action. Brooding because of mistakes he'd made wouldn't solve them. It wouldn't stop the pain he'd created in the lives of those he loved.

He just had to keep moving forward and figuring out ways to make things better. To heal hearts that never should have been broken in the first place.

"We'll be there soon. Spanish, are you?" He kept all suspicions from his voice as he examined the scanner, intent on not seeming the least little bit interested in her answer even though everything relied on it.

"No. Just..." She trailed off, unable to bring herself to lie full on to his face. Odd, considering he and her mother were both quite happy liars.

"Vacationing?" The Doctor supplied.

"I..." The date on the console, Jessica noticed, read the year 2011.

"Oh, and time!" Jessica blurted out, remembering. And ignoring his question. The last thing she needed was to be dropped off in the wrong time period. Not that it would have dire consequences to anyone's time line but her own, but it would leave her all alone in the wrong time to look after herself. "I'm from 2051"

This news really didn't deliver her the reaction she was expecting. This was the Doctor, after all. He certainly was too familiar with time travel to bat an eye at someone from another time other than the one he was currently traveling in. Unfortunately for her, he did more than bat an eye.

He abandoned his manic manipulations at the TARDIS controls and advanced upon her very much like a predator stalking prey.

She froze instantly, her eyes locking onto his rapidly approaching frame.

This couldn't be good. Why was he rushing at her? He stopped in front of her and looked at her with that driven stare only he had.

Feeling once more as though he were attempting to read into her and see her secrets, she couldn't help herself. She looked away.

"Melody Pond, how can you belong in 2051? You were raised in the past. Twice. Or will be. Once or twice. You can't and _don't_ belong in 2051. What is so important about 2051 that you suddenly need to be there?"

She shifted uncomfortably under his unwavering gaze.

"Because..." She wouldn't look at him at all now. Her eyes were glued to the floor. "It's...It's just...It's where I live...Please can you take me there, D-Doctor?" Thank goodness she hadn't let _that_ slip. Calling him dad would have raised a whole new line of questioning. One she wasn't prepared to delve into. Besides, it wasn't like she ever called him dad anyway, really. It did come out once in a while, but most of the time she knew better.

As her mother said, with even a scant trace of Time Lord DNA found within her, the Universe's bloodhounds would be after her.

Somehow, it never really bothered Jessica that her mother always appeared more worried about the guilt the Doctor might feel should that ever happen, than what might happen to Jessica should they ever find out about her. What _did_ bother her was her mother had some Time Lord DNA of her own, yet she didn't let that stop her from running about wildly.

As far as Jessica was concerned, the worst things that could happen to her, already had. But those were secrets she never thought she'd willingly reveal to the Doctor without him already knowing about them. A thing he always did seem to do until now.

"Not until you tell me why you're here, Melody, and why you're saying you're living in 2051 now. You aren't even supposed to have met me yet." No more dodging. Here he was, outright demanding answers in that threateningly quiet tone he reserved only when he needed it known that he _would_ get what he wanted.

Slowly, she forced her head up. It took some work to make her eyes to meet his, but she did it. "Why does it matter? I'm old enough to know my way home, and my way home is through Spain in 2051. You know I can't tell you more than that. You know about...Spoilers."

"Yes, and so do you." He didn't sound particularly relieved about that. She soon found out why. His finger was now wagging in her face. "Which brings me to another point."

His hand dropped, but her anxiety didn't.

"Spoilers. How do you even know about them yet? How do you know me already? Either you lie to me in your future, my past, about knowing about them and me, or your time line is completely wrong." _Even for you..._He spun around and passed the console, flopping down into a chair. He folded his legs and then his arms and just looked at her.

She watched his movements. He wasn't going to let this go. That much was apparent. He wasn't going to take her home unless she gave him some answers.

But her mother told her never to reveal things to him that he didn't already know. For as long as she had known the Doctor, he'd known her. She always just assumed her mother told him. It made sense to her that a woman would tell a man he was the father of her child. Especially since they'd been married. Even if their marriage wasn't a conventional one, nor was it continuous, except for sometimes. They hadn't divorced, but things like a continuous marriage weren't entirely possible with two time travelers who were always meeting out of sync.

Why hadn't her mother told him about her? But this was before he knew her, she reminded herself. They traveled through time and not always in the same direction. He was a time traveler and couldn't have always known he had a daughter named Jessica. This was a younger version of him. Before he and her mother even had her. Why hadn't she thought this out better? She was only just starting to glimpse the complications that could arise from time travel.

But her mother would have known this. Her mother always seemed to know just about everything. Surely, her mother would have told her that she had to tell the Doctor the truth about herself one day, if that were true. Wouldn't she have? But there was always rule one to contend with. Mum and Dad lie.

Jessica felt ill all over again.

"You need help, Melody. And the only way for me to help you is for you to tell me _everything_." The Doctor broke the silence when he saw that she was frozen in place.

She tugged at her ponytail and straightened up. She took a deep breath and stared down at her socked feet. If she told him the truth, would she be in trouble? Would all of time and space collapse? How would he take such news? She couldn't begin to guess and she didn't want to.

One would think if both of a child's parents were liars and lied frequently and with ease, that their child would have an equal ambivalence toward the truth. One would be very wrong. Because as good as she was at keeping secrets, the one thing Jessica wasn't able to do, was lie when it counted, to people who counted. It was always in her to be honest about the most important things. And this was a most important thing.

Jessica took several calming breaths, a technique the Doctor had taught her. She raised her head once more and look over at him. He sat so still he could have been asleep were it not for his eyes being open. And on her.

"I'm not Melody."

The Doctor stirred. Everything he'd previously been confident he knew about this girl all came screeching to an undeniable halt.

"I'm not Melody Pond. I'm not River Song. I'm...I'm just me."

"Just me? Hello, Just Me." He rose to his feet and smiled, waving at her. "And who is _just me _then?" How this couldn't be Melody steered the Doctor's mind into so many different directions even he could barely keep up with them. Who could she be if not Melody Pond? What other child would have behaved like this inside the TARDIS?

She hesitated. Only he could so easily accept that the belief he held in her being Melody Pond was wrong. Anyone else would have taken some real convincing, but the Doctor just accepted her statement as fact. As truth. Could he tell she was being truthful? She always felt like he could.

She opened her mouth to speak, her voice squeaking. "I-I'm-"

He stepped toward her, his eager face watching her reluctant one.

A flash of blinding light separated Jessica and the Doctor. She held her hands up in front of her face and blinked repeatedly, unable to see. What was going on?

Two pairs of hands reached out through the light and grabbed the Doctor firmly by the arms. They dragged him into the light.

The light vanished, along with the Doctor. Jessica was left staring at the empty console room, her mouth hanging open.


	5. How to Startle the Doctor

**Love you guys and your reviews! Once again, you've energized me. I even have two other chapters close to be finished! So hopefully I will be able to update again fairly soon.**

**Please review. :)  
><strong>

* * *

><p>The Doctor didn't know what was happening. That was unusual.<p>

The hands pulled on him. Two pairs, dragging him out of his own TARDIS and through the vortex.

His feet hit solid ground again and the hands immediately released him. He pulled at his jacket and turned to look at his abductors.

"That was very, very rude!" He scolded them on the brashness of their actions.

He went on, not yet fully grasping what was right in front of his face.

"It was rude and it's actually making me quite cross!" He stared at them.

"You had no right to take me away from my TARDIS like that and you're Amy and Rory." He announced, astonished.

They were indeed Amy and Rory, but they were different. Older. He estimated they were a good thirty years older. Rory's hair was dusted with gray and a bald spot. He was standing next to an equally older, not to mention more perturbed looking Amy.

"Hello..." He greeted them, unsmiling. Rory looked panicked.

So, Rory was panicking and Amy was irritated. This was never a good combination.

"You've got to get in there, Doctor!" Rory informed him.

The Doctor tried to figure out where he was. They were standing on an artificial beach next to large city. In particular, they were standing in front of a tall building with double doors and lots of banging and shouting was coming from within it. The building was twenty stories high and seemed to impose on the other buildings near it.

As he took in his surroundings, he figured out this had to be in direct correlation with Amy and Rory's natural time line. Which, judging by how they'd aged and his current surroundings, meant it had to be some time in the late 2030s, Earth, England. What he couldn't deduce was the point of his being brought here.

The cacophony of sounds coming from inside the building was ominous. He thought there was probably a nasty alien in there causing trouble. That must have been the reason behind his being brought here.

"Right." He clapped his hands together and turned back to them. "Okay. I'm guessing this isn't a social call then. But how did you two even get vortex manipulators?" He questioned as he eyed their wrists.

"Doctor, there isn't time!" Amy rolled her eyes and shoved him toward the building. "Hurry up! _Go_!"

The Doctor stumbled forward into the building, all the while wondering why they went to so much trouble just to find him. Whatever monster that was in the building must have been terrifying.

Wide eyed, he stepped aside as people rushed toward him, tumbling out the door one after the other, while others scurried to back doors and various hiding places.

What was happening here?

He moved forward, toward the area people were running away from. A lift. They were falling out of the lift and running as if for their very lives!

"Don't go up there!" A scared young man pleaded with the Doctor, but even as he warned him, the man was still moving away.

"Which floor?" The Doctor asked him.

"The eleventh! They're clearing all the floors out starting there. Don't go up there. Run! Just run!" And the young man did just that.

The Doctor shook his head as he watched him run. He was trying to sort this out. He pulled out his sonic, prepared for anything as he took the lift up to the eleventh floor. He heard a loud crash and hoped nobody was being hurt.

The lift opened and he cautiously stepped out. There weren't any people up here at a first glance, even though he could hear noises.

He looked left, then right. The floor appeared empty. He thought he heard a noise from the right so he slowly started down the corridor. What sort of beast might be here? Glancing in a room as he past, he noted a soothing looking sitting area with plush furniture and relaxing wall hangings with animated pictures inside them. Calming waves, rustling leaves, even the colors of the room appeared to be a relaxing assortment of blues. All of this and the artificial beach as well. Was this some sort of retreat or spa?

He moved, poking his head in this room and that, ever inquisitive.

Just before he went to stick his head into another room, a man came out of the room across the hall. His blue uniform, the Doctor observed, was a lot like hospital scrubs.

"You there!" He pointed to the Doctor.

"Yes?"

The man looked stressed. He was sweating and his face was all red. He glanced specifically at the Doctor's bow tie as though he were confirming something.

"You must come with me now!" He looked ready to grab the Doctor so rather than be dragged along yet again, he quickly moved forward to follow the man.

The man led him back into the room across the hall and to the Doctor's surprise, he recognized the back of a full head of untamed curls spilling over the back of a lounge chair facing a window.

"Hello Sweetie." She said calmly, no hint of the chaos that he was sure she had been causing only moments before.

He wasn't sure if this was a good thing, bad thing, or some other sort of thing entirely.

"River." He greeted her guardedly.

"You got my message." She was being short. Not that, that was entirely unlike her, but he would have preferred her to at least have gotten up and looked at him.

"Message? You mean the one where your parents rip me out of the TARDIS and drag me across all of time and space before shoving me into an unknown building where you're creating some sort of panic? Yes, I got that message. It was unavoidable, actually." He couldn't decide whether to be amused or annoyed. Possibly both.

"You wouldn't answer your phone, your psychic paper, your scanner messages, or the telegram!" She accused lightly.

He made a face at the back of her head. He didn't bother to explain that he hadn't gotten any of those things, but then again, she probably knew that. Her messages tended to hit him at various places along his time line and it was entirely possible he had ignored all of those things at different points along it. So he couldn't really argue that with her.

"That usually doesn't stop you." He pointed out. "You tend to then jump out of the nearest building, slash, skyscraper, slash, space ship, slash, insert-things-to-jump-out-of-here." She knew he would always be there to catch her. He knew it too. Especially now that he knew who she was. Amy and Rory's daughter. His killer. But that was his fault and he would never blame her for it.

River laughed. He stared at her hair, wondering once again what it would feel like to run his fingers through her bouncy, wild curls. Such thoughts weren't entirely romantic in nature either. From the bit of time he had ever gotten to touch it at all, he knew he was right and it would feel delightful to get to explore it freely. But now was not the time for such things. _Or was it_?

She was laughing, and that was yet another thing he wasn't sure about. Was that a good thing or a bad one? With River, he was never sure of much of anything.

"I'm afraid I'm not quite in a position to jump out of anything right now, dear."

"And why is that?" He asked in a silky tone.

He slowly walked toward her, a smirk forming across his lips. She didn't answer and as he approached her, he noticed it wasn't a lounge chair she was laying back on, but more of a comfortable bed that had controls on it. That was why she was sitting up. It lifted her upper body enough for her to be able to enjoy gazing out the window.

_A bed_? Was this some sort of hospital? Was she ill?

Suddenly, the Doctor was worried. The thought of River being sick or hurt upset him a good deal more than he was willing to openly admit. He felt fully responsible for her and for whatever might happen to her in her life thanks to the unique circumstances of her conception.

Her parents made it clear something was wrong here and he knew if they were desperate enough to collect him in such a manner, then things had to be dire.

If she was hurt, he would find a way to fix her, he resolved. If she was sick, he would find a way to heal her. He couldn't let anything short of that, happen.

"Are you-" He was about to ask her if she was okay. The words died on his lips as he moved around to face her and caught sight of something that terrified the Time Lord.

She was covered with a sheet and looked flushed, sweaty, and her breathing was slightly deeper than usual. None of that bothered him as much as something else did.

Her belly was significantly swollen under the sheet.

He ignored the pounding of his hearts in his ears and out came the sonic. He scanned her and looked at it.

In a second of time, all his original thoughts were obliterated. She wasn't just bloated. She didn't have a large tumor. She hadn't simply gained weight. Her body hadn't been invaded by some alien force. There was no disease or crippling illness of the digestive system or pelvis that was causing this. There was no getting around the solid fact of what lay before him.

He slowly moved his eyes back to her, staring.

_Is this really happening?_

His mouth fell open. His eyes bulged in shock.

"_River_?" He squeaked.

* * *

><p><strong>*As for why people are running out of the hospital...I have a madness to my method, but all shall be explained.<strong>


	6. Coping

**Please review. :) Thanks!**

* * *

><p>The Doctor looked petrified. Petrified and lost. Two things nobody ever wanted the Doctor to be. Least of all River Song on this very day.<p>

Her teasing smile fell away. Her eyes glazed over for the briefest of moments before clearing. Her hands landed on top of her belly. The contractions were bad, but this...This was far more painful.

Her baby was coming and this mad man she loved so very much had _no_ idea! He knew _nothing_! She'd known the day was coming. The day when he wouldn't know about how far their relationship had gone. But she truly hadn't thought it would happen today of all days!

Throughout her pregnancy, he had known, so she allowed herself to believe he would give her this one thing. That he would make sure the version of him that knew, would be there until after their child came into the world.

This was too important to have a clueless Doctor on her hands!

She would have cried, but there was hardly time. She'd threatened people's lives just to get him here, but this wasn't the Doctor she wanted. This wasn't the Doctor she needed. She needed him to know how well he knew her. But he didn't. She needed him to be strong for her so she could rest easy a moment, but that wasn't going to happen.

How could he be strong when he was too busy panicking himself?

"No time!" She grimaced and clutched at her belly as another painful contraction hit. The medical staff scurried about, none of them approaching her.

"Uh." The Doctor had gone an unbelievable sheen of white. It was curious to see just how white he'd gone. His mouth was hanging fully open, his bright eyes fully dilated, much as River currently was. He looked about helplessly at the medical staff.

"Why aren't you doing something?" His voice raised in pitch as he looked around at them in disbelief. That was no way for her medical care takers to behave!

"We can't...We're not authorized to approach her as long as she has that gun." The man who had pulled him into the room informed him.

River didn't wait for the Doctor's response to that, she reached under her sheets and pulled out a gun. She tossed it across the room. "I was only waiting for _him_." She nodded at the Doctor.

The Doctor noted that there was no way a mere gun had caused all of the chaos he'd witnessed.

_River is pregnant! River is having a baby! How is she having a baby? Now? Why?  
><em>

Hesitantly, the medical staff started to approach her and used buttons on the chair to lift the bottom part of the chair up. What the Doctor assumed was her obstetrician, lifted the sheet that was covering her legs. As River glanced up at the Doctor, she wondered for one horrifying moment, if he might actually pass out!

He stood there, frozen in place, just watching with a dazed expression that River very much would have loved to knock off his face were she not too busy giving birth!

"You can't be having a baby! How can you be having a _baby_?"

"What do you mean _how_?" She snapped. Was he serious?

The stunned look on his face was upsetting and annoying her to the point that she actually considered getting up just to slap some sense back into him.

She tried to lighten the mood, all the while feeling it was ridiculous that she was in a position to have to do so! But now was not the time to be needy, even in her currently very vulnerable position.

"I'd love to discuss the birds and the bees with you, Doctor. Love a good banter, but as you can plainly see, I'm a bit busy just now." The last sentence came out strained.

She let out a scream as a painful contraction hit her.

The Doctor held his hands up and jumped at the sound.

_He can walk up empty handed against an entire battalion of Daleks as they attack multiple planets all at once, but give him a woman in the process of giving birth, and he turns into a useless prat! _River thought irritably.

She tensed up, trying to keep it together. If it were his future self, the one she'd created this child with, he would have actually been there for her. Certainly, he would have panicked, but he would have said something encouraging and comforting at least. But this Doctor merely stood a short distance away, uselessly, with no idea what was going on or how to react to it.

Having to give birth without the support of her husband, River focused on the task at hand.

She'd tried. She'd tried desperately to find her Doctor. To get him to come to her to be here for the most important event in her and their lives. She really had. She had sent every possible message, she would have blown up an entire Galaxy had she thought it would have gotten him to her sooner and the _right_ him. But she hadn't had time to do such things. Instead she'd pleaded with her parents to find him. And they had. She knew they'd done their very best. They couldn't help that the Doctor wasn't ready yet.

Her father hadn't needed much convincing. His feelings about the Doctor were well known even if he never said them. He had mixed feelings toward the man who had stolen the hearts of his wife and daughter long before Rory himself had known either one of them. It was no secret how he felt, but what was important to River was important to him. He did the same things for Amy. He always had. He'd give up everything to make sure his family had what they needed and wanted. It was he who was able to track down the vortex manipulators. Amy hadn't been as convinced that the Doctor was necessary. River knew it was because her mother feared something just like this happening. Her being confronted with a Doctor who had no clue.

But still, both of them had worked and gotten him here. At least he would be here for the birth of his child, she consoled herself. That was the important thing.

As River screamed, the Doctor winced. He stepped back, timid in such a situation. His eyes were large and full of fear. Why couldn't they be full of love and concern, River thought. He looked ready to run from the room and never turn back.

She needed him, and damn that brilliant man, but he wasn't here for her! She knew she couldn't expect anything from him. Her eyes filled and she squeezed them tightly shut. She focused instead on her breathing, deciding to ignore him.

"You're ready, Dr. Song. Go ahead and push." The obstetrician informed her. He was not thrilled at having to deliver a baby from a woman who had threatened to kill him, and his staff, but he was getting paid an outrageously high amount of money to do so.

The Doctor was a mess. River Song was having a baby. Right here and now. A _baby_! How did she even get a baby? He really was terrified to ask that question.

He watched the medical staff move around, tending to her. He drew his hands together and clasped them tightly. River was having a baby and she had summoned him here by any means necessary. She'd needed him here.

But why him? He didn't let himself think too hard on that one.

He watched her eyes become watery and thought fretfully that tears might actually start to fall! Thankfully, that didn't happen. He'd rarely seen her fully break into tears, and he didn't wish to start now.

She closed her eyes and was suddenly calmer. He looked from her face to where the obstetrician bent between her legs. He looked quickly back at her face, trying not to look as flustered as he felt.

He focused his thoughts on the facts, attempting to keep his own confused emotions at bay.

River was having a baby right now and she needed him. He remembered himself then. He couldn't let her down. Not ever and especially not at a time like this!

He glanced back toward the door. He wouldn't run, but he did seriously wish he could have done.

Wondering if River might hit him, he forced himself toward her. He walked over on wooden legs and stood beside her bed. He listened to her rapid and ragged breaths, the sweat gleaming on her brow. She was shaking with the efforts of pushing the baby from her body.

_This is really happening. _

He didn't say anything. He hadn't any inkling what _to _say.

Silently, he reached down and took her hand in between both of his. He patted the top of it and gently squeezed her hand in between his.

River was used to knowing how to handle difficult situations under pressure. But this wasn't one she was ready for. She hadn't expected to go through this alone. Since she was having to do just that, she steeled herself for pulling back her emotions and just doing what needed to be done.

She was surprised to feel the warmth of the Doctor's hands encasing her's. She was further surprised to feel his encouraging squeeze. She would have smiled had she not been too exhausted and in immense pain to do so.

He was here for her after all. He didn't let her down. Dropped into a situation he knew nothing about, he was right there for her, just the same.

Feeling more hopeful, if not calmed, River focused on the obstetrician's instructions. It was time to bring a life into the world.

She found herself gripping the Doctor's lower hand tighter and tighter as she bore down to push when the next contraction hit. She didn't notice, nor would she have cared, that she was causing him considerable pain. Both of them knew that, that pain held no comparison to child birth.

He didn't react at all to the fact that she was crushing his hand so tightly the smaller bones were close to cracking. He didn't even wince. He just held her hand, his other over top it, and watched in growing awe and amazement at what was occurring.

Today was turning out unexpected. That was an understatement.

With another scream, the Doctor chewed on his lip at the pressure River was exerting upon his poor fingers. He refused to try to pull away or tell her to ease up.

All in all, he was just extremely grateful he didn't have to deliver this child of River's.

He was having that thought as something happened. That wouldn't have bothered him at all, had it been the something that was _supposed_ to be happening, but it wasn't.

Something crashed into the room.

It literally crashed through the door, breaking parts of the frame off as it barreled inside and roared.

_Roared?_

The Doctor jerked and looked over as the medical staff started screaming.

He eyed the seven foot tall and huge, green scaled creature that was sloshing across the floor, swiping objects with it's tail and growling ferociously.

"A Denomock! But they've gone extinct!" He sounded both thrilled and excited at the find. "River, have you ever seen anything so-"

River stopped him with another scream which brought him back to the reality of the moment.

He tore his eyes from the creature and back to her.

To his great horror, the obstetrician was no longer there. He'd backed off and away thanks to the Denomock. All of the medical staff were slinking off out a side door in order to avoid the creature.

At least he knew why people were fleeing the building in such a panic. As soon as he found River here, he'd realized the chaos he'd seen when he first got here, couldn't have possibly been caused by her alone. He just hadn't time to consider what exactly it could have been until now.

"No! No, no, no, come back! Please? He may enjoy ripping hearts out and devouring human flesh, but you've got a baby to deliver here!" The Doctor yelled out to them as the medical staff scurried out. "Wait, come back!" He made a sound of distress and looked from the creature to River and back several times.

River heard the commotion, and didn't really care. An entire parade of Sontarans, Daleks and anything else could have come marching through the room at that point, threatening to exterminate, and kill everything in their path and she wouldn't have paid a bit of attention to them. The pain of a natural child birth was more severe than she'd given it credit for. She should have gone with the medications offered to her!

But she had thought that it would be more 'adventuresome' to have the baby naturally. She was regretting that decision. Especially now that those who could administer her anything for the pain had just run away.

"Doctor!" River shouted between severe pains. "A little help?"

"Of course!" He let go of her hand and hurried over to sonic a light fixture at the other side of the room. It blinked on and off, catching the Denomock's attention as he knew it would. They were attracted to blinking, sparkling, anything like that. Unfortunately, it was more interested in the blinking green light of the sonic than of the white lamp.

"Uh..."

It started toward the Doctor. He started to back away.

"Doctor!" River shouted, screaming again. Did she really have to spell it out for him? She wasn't dense. She knew he was avoiding the inevitable. Someone had to help deliver the baby!

"Working on it!" He called as the creature backed him into the corner. "Have patience."

"_Patience_? You _do_ know how this works, don't you? A baby waits for no one, Doctor, not even you!"

He faced off against the creature.

"You like this, do you? Heh." He let out a nervous laugh and flashed the sonic light a few times. The creature made a grumbling noise and the Doctor held the sonic up and out toward it. "Here you go. All yours if you let me out of the corner. Of course, I'm trying to reason with a Denomock and they can't be reasoned with so that really won't work at all will it."

The creature threw a clawed paw at him. He ducked it as the claw swung into the lamp and knocked it violently across the room.

"Doctor!" River bit back yet another horrible scream of pain.

"Coming!" He called to her.

"Will you stop playing with that thing and get over here and _help _me!"

"What, _playing_?" He called out in disbelief. Could she really call this playing? He was trying to fight for his life here! He didn't even dare try to argue with the pregnant lady, however.

He clung to the wall and slid around the creature. He went behind it's back and used the sonic to make the lights in the hall flicker off and on, then he quickly tucked it away before it swung around to see, knocking several more things off a counter with it's tail. The Doctor backed away slowly.

"Doctor!"

"Won't be a moment! Stay calm and breath!"

"Have I mentioned lately how I hate you?" She was practically snarling herself at this point. She would give that beast something to fear if it didn't get the hell out of her delivery room!

"No, you don't!"

It lost interest in him when it saw how the lights were flickering out of sync, out in the hallway. Giving another roar, it headed back out the widened and half destroyed door.

The Doctor didn't wait to run back over to River. "Uh, where is your delivery person?" He looked back toward the side door. He ran over to it and found it securely locked.

"_Doctor_!" River yelled at him.

"Yes, just a minute!" Panicked, he didn't want to do this. He couldn't deliver River Song's baby!

He fumbled for his sonic and used it to unlock the door. He stuck his head out, hopefully. Unfortunately, the room next door was empty. The staff had likely taken the opportunity to run down the nearest set of stairs or taken the lifts to get out of there.

"Oh! They choose now for a lunch break? _Really_? How helpful, those cowards!" The Doctor glared out into the empty room.

"Doctor!" Her voice was less angry now, worn with the strain of childbirth.

It was no use. He couldn't avoid it any longer. River needed him.

He hurried back to her, this time taking his place between her legs. His head temporarily disappeared under the sheet before popping back out to announce.

"It's coming!" Sounds of the creature wreaking havoc in the hallway could be heard, but that would have to wait.

He went back under the sheet and popped back up.

"You're crowning and there's...It's...It's a _baby_!" He exclaimed.

River rolled her eyes in spite of the enormous and excruciating pain she was in. "What did you_ think _you would find down there?"

The Doctor blushed.

Gritting her teeth, River didn't even realize she wasn't pushing until the Doctor spoke up again from under the sheet.

"Push. And breathe! Breathe and push!" He commanded, his hearts and mind competing in their current racing match.

_River is having a baby. A baby! River Song is going to be a mum! How can she be a mum, she's River! _

The Doctor couldn't quite seem to get over his shock and accept the situation for what it was, which was a different feeling for him. Normally he simply accepted things as they came.

"I _am _pushing!" She snapped, even though she hadn't been.

He poked his head up to meet her eyes. "And breathe!" He reminded.

She gave him a dreadful look at that. If looks could kill...

He pointed at her. "Breathe, I said." He told her before disappearing back under the sheet.

She breathed and continued pushing. Each push came with a strangled scream. The effort straining her to the point she was no longer capable of a full on scream.

A loud bang down the hall came and rattled it's way rapidly down to the ground floor.

_That probably isn't a very good thing at all. __  
><em>

"One more. Make it a good one!" He sounded excited, which River would have taken as a positive sign were she not blinded by the excruciating pain. Why hadn't her mother told her how _much_ this hurt?

She pushed with all her might and thought she might loss consciousness, as she was seeing stars before her eyes from working so hard. She'd rather be thrown into any battle than go through this again! Right then and there she decided she was _never _doing this again.

She could hear a baby's cry.

She fell back against the soft pillow under her head and closed her eyes. The intensity of the pain had passed and life was suddenly bearable again.

The Doctor was clearing the baby's mouth and wrapping it in a blanket. He cradled the baby in his arms and moved over to her to place the child in her arms.

"Congratulations!" He was bubbling over with joy for her. He looked down at the little squirming pink infant in his arms, then at River again. "You're a mum." He grinned. As shocked as he was about all of this, he couldn't help enjoying something this momentous. "You have a healthy daughter!"

River managed a weak smile while slowly opening her eyes. She looked to his outstretched arms and the little baby swaddled in a white blanket. "She's beautiful." She spoke softly, looking at her newborn daughter.

"Yeah!" He kept grinning and gently touched the baby's cheek. Soft and smooth.

River watched him. The way he was looking at the baby, the way he touched her so gently, everything was turning out just right. Yet, she didn't feel quite ready to tell him.

She wanted him to love her and cherish her. He had only just learned that she was pregnant and had a baby. She didn't want to handle the Doctor not adoring their child. It was one thing when he was obnoxious with her or didn't know something important about her, it was quite another for him to feel that way about his own child.

It wasn't something she ordinary gave in to, fear. But it was what she was doing now. Perhaps it was the hormones, or new motherhood. Whatever the reasons, she allowed fear to keep her quiet.

The Doctor had managed to calm down.

The baby was Amy and Rory's granddaughter! With River for a mother, she was sure to have an incredible future. With loving grandparents like those two, she would be overburdened with their affection. He had no lack of confidence about her well being.

The child made a little gurgling sound which caused him to smile brighter.

He gently placed her into her mother's awaiting arms.

River took the baby and cradled her gently. She gave the Doctor a soft smile. It hurt that he wasn't yet her Doctor, but she knew this was a difficult situation for him too even when he didn't know everything.

She turned her attention back to the baby. "Her name is Jessica." She informed him. "Jessica Amelia."

The Doctor laughed quietly, in awe of this baby and of River just now.

He folded his hands in front of him and stood looking almost bashful. "That's a gorgeous name! Amy will be proud. Jessica Amelia Song." He nodded, satisfied at the name.

"I _am_ proud." Amy's voice startled him. He whirled around. Rory stood just inside the doorway looking humbled and Amy had tears running down her cheeks. She stood holding a huge piece of door frame.

"Amy. What are you doing with that?" The Doctor tilted his head, watching her curiously.

"Amy played a bit of whack-the-monster-into-the-elevator-shaft down the corridor." Rory informed him.

"Yeah, I don't think he's going to be causing any more trouble. Nobody messes with my daughter. Or my granddaughter."

The Doctor grinned at that. "I should have known you'd come in handy."

"You should see her with a shovel." Rory spoke up. Amy lightly smacked him.

"I've seen her with a cricket bat!" The Doctor laughed. He turned back to River and baby Jessica. He bent to kiss Jessica's cheek. The little one's eyes were on his, bright with wonder and full of intelligence. She would be something, he was sure of that.

He moved then to press a caring kiss to River's forehead.

River was gazing lovingly at her baby girl.

Rory and Amy came over to see the baby and talk with River. The Doctor hugged each of them, patting Rory on the back as well before stepping back to let them beside their daughter and granddaughter.

Amy bent to gaze at her granddaughter. "Oh look at that, she has the Doctor's eyes!" She announced. "And she has her mum's pretty face, lucky girl."

Rory had tears in his eyes. A granddaughter! He was finally a grandfather. He had the family he always wanted! Well, almost. He hardly wanted to have the Doctor ingrained so thoroughly into his life that he was his son-in-law, but that wasn't anything he had any control over.

"She has my ears though!" Rory declared proudly. Amy reached over to pat Rory's head. "Yes, she does." The two older Ponds embraced.

That was when Amy noticed the Doctor was missing. She pulled back. "Where did he go? Don't tell me he's left again! I'll drag him back here if I have to!" She spouted angrily. "He needs to be here to help River and the baby!"

"Oh mother, he did." River was more pliant than usual. She understood the Doctor even better than either of her parents could. She was quite used to the Doctor's disappearing acts. She knew he would be there when she needed him. He always was, even if it wasn't always in the ways she would have chosen.

She wondered if he'd heard Amy's comment about the baby having his eyes. If he had overheard that bit of conversation, he must have known the truth. But had he heard it or not? She would have to wait until the next time she saw him, to find out.

"But where did he go?" Amy looked around, then back at her.

"He stole dad's vortex manipulator when he hugged him and patted him on the back. Sleight of hand trick." River said without looking up.

How had she caught that? The Doctor would have been impressed!

Rory glanced down at his wrist. His vortex manipulator was missing. _Naturally_.

He sighed.

"I probably should have seen that coming..."


	7. Rory's Heart

**I thought it was time to check in on Rory and Amy. **

**Good luck to those of you writing your own stories!  
><strong>

**Thank you all for the great reviews and your encouraging words!**

* * *

><p>Rory couldn't bear it. Had he the ability and the opportunity, he would have rectified this situation immediately. Because he really couldn't stand a moment of seeing the love of his life in so much pain. He would have readily died again if it would have taken that pain from her.<p>

Killed by aliens, sucked out of existence and forgotten, waiting for two thousand years, drowned, none of it meant anything. To see Amy hurting was the most savage fate Rory was ever dealt.

He watched her leave and glanced only briefly at the girl and the Doctor before running after Amy. He didn't let his own feelings on the matter at hand trickle out.

He was confused. Was this girl his daughter? He had serious doubts that the Doctor could sort things out. If she needed him, he would do all he could for her. He always would for his wife and his daughter. But experience had taught him that it was unlikely anything was as it seemed.

He didn't let any of his own painful thoughts linger too long. He could ponder things out later. Right now it was time to help Amy. She was always his priority. Her and Melody, or River, or whomever she ever was or would be. They would always be first in his life. Amy always had been, of course. Even before she realized it.

Every time she was picked on for talking about her magical Doctor at school, he stood up for her. Sure, she was better at standing up for herself. Most of the time, it was the girl or boy who picked on her that ended up regretting it from her biting, kicking, or hitting them.

Rory had often ended up getting beaten up by others by standing up to them for her. But she was worth it. She was always worth it.

He was proud that now that they were married, she came to him more often than just dealing with things all on her own or even just asking the Doctor for help. It helped boost his confidence that she turned to him instead of the Doctor more now. Since the Doctor, too, would do anything for Amy, it had been hard to compete with him. Rory expected to lose early on. So, it took him by surprise to learn that Amy actually loved _him_, and not the Doctor. At least, not in _that_ way.

Rory didn't have to try harder to do more for Amy. He just did what he always did and always would do. Everything he could for her.

But now she was in so much pain. He knew he couldn't ease it enough to un-break her heart. But that wouldn't stop him from trying.

He quietly nudged their bedroom door open. Their old bunk bed was in the corner, but the new bed the TARDIS allowed them to have was where he found his wife. She sat stiffly, a pillow in her lap. Her hands played with a corner of the pillow case. Tears fell down her cheeks as she stared blankly at the floor.

"Amy?" He went to her. He sat down beside her. He slid his arms around her and gently tugged her to him. He pressed his lips to hers. She kissed him back a moment before pulling back.

"Rory." She whispered, the extent of her pain evident in her voice. It shook Rory to the very core of his being. She buried her face into his shoulder. The pain in her voice told him all he needed to know. She was hurting bad. This whole ordeal had taken a toll on her.

He held her close and pressed his face into her hair. His hand moved up and down her back, his other kept her tucked close against him. He didn't try to whisper any comforting words. He couldn't tell her it was okay, because it wasn't. He couldn't tell her it would be okay, because he wasn't sure that it would.

If he could have, he would have warded off every painful feeling she ever had with those arms of his. But all he could do was hold her. He was confident that it would be enough comfort, but he knew it wouldn't end her pain, only ease it.

Getting angry about losing their daughter wouldn't help anything, but if it would have, Rory would have been first in line to dole out the punches. He already had and wasn't afraid to throw his fist around when the situation called for it. He supposed that since he'd dared to punch the Doctor and lived to tell the tale, then he could stand up to anyone. Even Hitler. Apparently.

But this wasn't an enemy he could battle. Unless he got his hands on that Madame Kovarian again. He was a gentleman and had never hit a woman before, but he felt certain he could make an exception in her case.

He seemed to be handling things better than Amy was. Probably because he was not a mother, and hadn't been kidnapped or pregnant. But there was also that he was able to hold onto the positives as equally as he could the negatives. He managed to find an easy balance. Most people had trouble doing that. He could understand why.

But something being around the Doctor had taught him was that when all seemed lost, sometimes magical and ridiculous things happened. Things that changed lives for the better. He clung to this while he watched his wife silently falling apart.

Before the Doctor ever entered their lives, he'd found his solace in her. She'd been his happiness. Even just being near her was more than enough. More than he could have hoped for. Sure, he'd dreamed about a relationship with her since they were small, but he never expected to actually have someone as wonderful as Amy return his love.

He'd always been in love with her. Enough to follow her into this crazy blue box and all around the Universe, even outside the Universe itself! He was no superhero. Just a guy in love with a girl. But as far as Rory Williams or as the Doctor insisted, Rory Pond, was concerned, that was enough. Loving Amy was all he wanted and needed and lived for.

Watching her being torn apart inside over the traumatic way they lost their daughter, only strengthened Rory's resolve. He would be strong for her. It was what he was here for. It was what he did. It was the one thing he could do. He couldn't give Melody back to her. He couldn't stop what had already happened. He couldn't make River Song _not_ be a psychopath.

He tenderly rocked Amy, cradling her head against his shoulder. His lips caressed her cheek, his hand rubbed her back and moved through her silky hair. He felt her calming down a little. This was the one thing even the Doctor couldn't do for her.

Still, he hoped with every bit of hope he had left, that the Doctor would somehow fix this so that she wouldn't have to suffer so much. He knew it was possible that it would never happen.

"Amy." He spoke up after a while of just letting her cry and holding her. He moved back enough to gently cup her face in his hands and catch her eye. "Whatever happens, no matter how bad it gets, we'll get through it. I've got your back. _Always_." He emphasized.

"I know. It's just..." Her voice wavered so much. He stroked his hand lightly down her hair soothingly. He patiently waited for her to say what she needed to.

"I...She's my baby._ Our _baby. And she's gone. We're never going to see her again. We're never going to hold her in our arms. Never going to see her first steps, hear her first words, watch her lose her first tooth! We...I shot her, Rory. I shot-"

Fresh tears spilled over and fell down her cheeks. Rory choked down a quiet sob, slightly shaking. She was right, they were missing out on so much, but it was for her that he was crying for the most. He swiped at his eyes to dry up the tears and steadied himself for her.

"Hey." Rory threw the word at her, jolting her. "Don't talk like that, okay? You didn't know."

"But Rory I-"

"No." He said firmly, shaking his head and pulling her against him for another hug. "No." He spoke quieter this time. He couldn't have her blaming herself for any of this mess. "You were trying to protect the Doctor and you didn't know what we now know. There was no way for you to know. You did what you had to do, Amy, with the information we had, that was all you could have done and that is all there is to it."

Nodding against him, she clung to him for dear life. "I want our baby, Rory." She cried. She was shaking.

He pressed her closer to him and hugged her tighter. "I know." Was all he could say because he couldn't make promises. He knew he couldn't give her back their lost baby. He couldn't make the Doctor bring them to her or bring her to them. She had her own path to make in life and if they were to tamper with it, it would destroy so much. He would happily have done so to ease Amy's pain, but he knew there was no way Amy or the Doctor would go along with it. He couldn't see how he could possibly do it on his own.

That didn't mean he didn't need to have some words with the Doctor about all of this though.

"I'm tired." Amy whispered. Rory silently moved to help her into the bed. He pulled the covers back and slipped his arm around her waist. He guided her into the bed and tugged the covers up over her. He bent and kissed her. She reached up to run a hand through his hair once.

"Rory?" The tearful way she spoke his name made him tremble.

"I'm here, Amy." He instantly sank down onto the floor beside the bed, facing her. He reached over and tucked a mass of ginger locks away from her face.

"Promise me something."

"Anything." He immediately agreed. He'd given himself to her long ago. Even death couldn't take his loyalty away.

"Promise me memories of her. Promise me that. Memories with our little girl. She-She was a scared little girl in a space suit before she was ever even Mels. I know we can't have her, but promise me that. Promise me memories."

Rory had absolutely not the slightest idea of how to make something that astronomical happen.

"I promise. You'll have your memories." But he would see to it that it did. Whatever the cost to himself.

He stayed there, watching her as her eyes slid shut and her breathing evened out. Her face was ghostly white and stained with dried up tears. He got up and reached down to touch her face. "I love you, Amy." He said quietly to the sleeping girl.

He turned and left the room. No matter what anyone said or did, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered, but making sure he kept this promise. He was going to get Amy what she needed.

It was time to have a talk with the Doctor.


	8. Traumatic Happenings

**Aww, I see Rory wasn't feeling the love from the last chapter. But that is okay, he still deserves his time. Thank you to SilverStella for the review! :) Yes, everyone deserves a Rory.  
><strong>

**This chapter obviously has a bit of it's inspiration from 'Closing Time'.**

**Please review! I appreciate you all!  
><strong>

* * *

><p>The Doctor was surrounded in the bright light of the vortex. The vortex manipulator wasn't the most stable form of time travel. It could go wrong and slip him right out of the time stream and out of existence with even the most minor of malfunctions. Yet, he felt far more comfortable here than he did back in that delivery room.<p>

River Song was a mum! He hadn't seen that one coming, no matter how brilliant he was. He couldn't picture it until today. And today he was picturing it quite a bit. Particularly when the bright light stopped and he stumbled forward into a table. A table in front of a woman who just happened to be River. And she also just happened to have a baby on her hip.

The Doctor stared.

It wasn't that he minded running into her or her running into him. Quite the opposite. She intrigued him. But twice in the same day was proving to be an overpowering experience.

"It's about time." She claimed, smiling and looking entirely happy to see him here. "You're late again."

"Again? Was there really a first time to this event?"

"What?" She didn't seem concerned that she hadn't a clue what he was on about. He, on the other hand, was well enough concerned with the fact that he had no idea what _she_ was on about.

"How did I get here? I was on my way back to the TARDIS. You..." He looked down and tweaked the vortex manipulator. "You intercepted my time stream! You redirected me here. How did you manage that?" He was more puzzled than irritated. It was probably due to him being too astonished once again by the astounding and confounding River Song.

"It was simple enough. I just re-calibrated the time receptors on the same vortex manipulator you're using, at a different place in your time stream. I knew I'd get you here from somewhere. Where did I pull you from?"

He just stared at her some more. He knew she was clever, but her ripping him from his time stream to meet her needs was going a bit far. Especially since he'd just finished helping her with something rather massive. Not that she realized this.

He wasn't about to share too much information with her. Like how little he knew. If she found out he'd only just come from Jessica's birth, he thought she would be more anxious about seeing him than if she assumed he was from a later time.

"What am I late for?"

River was very used to his lack of responding. She didn't press him on it. She held the little one out toward him. He took a step back and squinted at the baby.

The child had gained a full year since he'd last seen her. She had a tuft of straight red hair sticking out and bright green eyes that were on him. Two drool covered fingers were stuffed in her mouth while she sucked away at them. The little one was in a bright pink one piece pajama set with buttons and would have been called adorable by any other doting parent.

"She's leaking." The Doctor informed River.

"Yes, she does that." River laughed as she stepped over to him.

"Why are you holding her like that?"

"I'm waiting for you to take her."

"And why would I do that?"

River sighed and placed Jessica squarely into the Doctor's arms. "You really _do_ need to stop pretending you're so bad at this, sweetie."

"Who says I'm pretending?" He asked, his expression serious. He looked down at the child in his arms and then back up at her with a 'what am I supposed to do with her?' sort of look.

She just smiled and leaned in to kiss him.

_Here she goes with the kissing again! She doesn't know we haven't done this very much yet_.

The Doctor recalled the image of her despondent look the first time she'd kissed him. At least, from his perspective. He didn't want to see that look again. So, he didn't give even a scant hinted trace of pulling away. He shifted the baby to his side as her lips met his.

He kissed her back. He wasn't completely sure he was only doing it to convince her that they'd done it plenty before. He actually didn't mind kissing her. Her lips felt so soft against his, her taste wasn't bad. In fact if he were honest with himself about it, he would admit she tasted quite good, and she smelled nice too.

Baby Jessica stared at the pair as they kissed. "Yosh?" She asked in baby gibberish.

The Doctor laughed against River's lips and she pulled back. "What is it?" She asked, smiling as she looked from the Doctor to Jessica, and back.

"She just asked if we were stuck together."

River giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Well, that wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?"

Still smiling, the Doctor felt his hearts speed up. What was she doing, and why did she always insist on doing whatever it was she was doing, to _him_? Go figure out women! "I wouldn't call it that, no."

She leaned in for another kiss and this time the Doctor was surprised to find himself eager for it. He not only kissed her back, but gently placed his free hand on her shoulder. He was tempted to run it through those curls he so desperately wanted to touch, but he held back. At least he didn't have to worry about what to do with his hands this time.

The kiss lasted quite a while. He didn't clock it or anything. Well, not on purpose...Necessarily. But he was usually very aware of time and as he felt her tongue against his, he counted out that they had been kissing for three full minutes. This was a full on snogging if there ever was one!

Only when Jessica started bouncing herself up and down in the Doctor's arm and babbling did River pull back and grin slyly at him. "There's more where that came from. Later." She added coyly.

She reached over and patted Jessica's head. "Be good. Mummy will be back in a short while."

Still in a daze from the kissing, the Doctor's hair was ruffled. He hadn't even noticed that she'd been running a hand through his hair nor was he aware that his hair was now all messy.

"What do you mean?" He asked, confused as he watched River.

"We're giving my mum and dad a rest." She informed him. "Remember?"

"But she's _your _daughter!"

"Oh." River sighed, rolling her eyes upward. "Not again..." She muttered under her breath, realizing that she was yet again faced with a clueless Doctor. "Well, we'll just have to make due, won't we."

He shifted Jessica back into both of his arms and bounced her since he heard her babble and understood she was asking for him to 'go bumpy' with his arms. It was surprising to him how humans couldn't understand their own babies' chatter. 'Go bumpy' in baby-speak was perfectly understandable to him.

"It's your turn, dear." River reminded him before disappearing in a flash with her own vortex manipulator. She needed to check in with the storm cage facility. Not that they could do much about it if she didn't, but she'd been neglecting her prison time more so since motherhood.

"_My_ turn?" He mumbled, trying to find reason behind her words.

As it dawned on him that she was gone, panic struck him. "Wait! No, you can't! But your baby!" He held Jessica up towards the empty space where River had just been.

Jessica whimpered.

"I don't know where your mummy went, but I'm sure she'll be back." He frowned at the child. "I guess she thinks along with helping deliver you, I'm supposed to be a..._Nanny_." He said with distaste. He held Jessica up and stared at her.

What was he supposed to do with a baby?

"Well now. Let's see where we are." He started bouncing her some more and turned around to get a look at what seemed to be a very spacious room. It was a bright, colorful nursery, he saw. With toys and a cot and many other things little ones loved and needed. Judging by the look, feel, and smell, he knew it was Earth. He glanced out of the room. A perfectly ordinary house.

"Oh, Jessica, I shouldn't be here." He murmured, kissing the top of her head. "I really shouldn't. I've left people back on my ship that need me." He sighed, thinking of the strange, mysterious young girl with secrets, of upset Amy and Rory. He couldn't take Jessica there though. The vortex manipulator was too unstable, not to mention it nearly always gave a rough trip. He wouldn't trust it with a child placed in his care. He couldn't put her through that. Also, he was sure River would kill him again if he did that.

She looked up at him tearfully. "Zoh, zoh fooshhh!"

The Doctor carefully hugged her against him. "No, no, you don't need _me_. You've got your mum and grandparents and this lovely nursery, all that you need right here."

She repeated her babble, but he just shook his head.

"Bbrofm!" She screeched.

"Okay, okay, so you need me!" He gave up on arguing that point. "Although I can't see why. I gather you're as stubborn as your grandmother and mother combined!"

She calmed and went on with a more relaxed baby chatter.

He glanced over to see what she was talking about.

"Oh, I see!" He quickly carried her over to a rocking horse on the floor.

He sat down and gently plopped her up onto the toy wooden rocking horse.

He kept a hand on her back to keep her from toppling over as he rocked her back and forth. "You like the horse. Well, why wouldn't you? It moves and it doesn't bite like the real thing will."

She whined. He quickly went on. "Not that a real horse will bite you. No, don't worry about that. But it's safer in here. Not that safer is necessarily better." He said this last part as though he completely disagreed with safer being a better option pretty much ever.

Jessica grinned up at him as though she understood him perfectly.

"Mummy!" She yelled out happily.

The Doctor blinked. "Oh, you can talk not-baby, can you?" He glanced around. "Well you're mummy isn't back yet, but she will be."

Jessica was looking at him. "Mummy!" She cried out again, joyously as she continued grinning at him.

"No. I'm not your mummy. I'm the Doctor, but nice guess." He kissed the tip of her nose. Babies were always worthy of kisses.

"Mummy, mummy, mummy!" She insisted reaching out for him. She was leaning so far over she almost did topple off the top of the wooden horse. The Doctor had to grab her to keep her from doing just that. She was flinging herself toward him.

"Mummy!" She settled herself against his chest.

"I'm not your mummy! I'm not even a girl! Mummies are girls! Well, nearly always." He was baffled as to why this toddler kept insisting on calling him mummy.

"Mummy." She argued, then went on in baby talk.

He frowned. "Fez? You've seen my fez? When did you see my fez? And they are _too_ cool!" He didn't seem to find it the least bit ridiculous to be arguing like this with a one year old.

She yammered away before starting to suck on his jacket.

"Well, I don't know where the big noisy thing is, or _what_ it is, but I'm sure it's very pretty as you say." The Doctor failed to recognize the one year old's description of his very own TARDIS.

He stood back up and started walking around the room with her.

She mumbled as she chewed at his jacket.

"Is it? I've never actually tasted it. No, wait, I lie. I did taste it. I prefer the taste of denim myself." Unlike any other adult alive, he didn't appear bothered at all by the slobber getting all over his tweed jacket. He didn't even attempt to stop her or tell her it was wrong to chew on clothing.

He smiled down at the baby in his arms. She was a bundle of energy and had a lot to say, but most tots did.

"If you're hungry, why didn't you just say so? Surely your mum keeps something around here for that." He carried her out to the kitchen in search of a bottle or baby food.

He supposed looking after a baby wasn't that difficult. It was just a lot of work and he was quite old for this sort of thing. He found a bottle of milk in the fridge and pulled it out, and held it up to her mouth. She grabbed at it with both hands, nearly falling out of his arms. He had to tighten his grip on her. She clearly fully expected him to keep her safe and had no doubts that he would do just that.

"You're a very trusting baby, aren't you?" He kissed the top of her head again as she drank from the bottle and gazed up at him with large, and indeed, trusting eyes.

"You have your grandmother's hair I see. Lucky ginger." He smiled then started back toward the nursery with her when a loud explosion rocked the entire foundation of the house.

Jessica burst into tears.

The Doctor dove to the ground. He kept his elbows out so they hit the ground first and buffered Jessica close to his chest. He carefully shielded her with his body as shelves and ceiling came crashing down upon them.

"Your mother didn't mention guests!" He yelped as something heavy and hard hit his shoulder. Jessica's bottle had flown out of her mouth and to the floor, forgotten. He pressed her face into his shirt as debris caused soot to rise, choking him. He couldn't let the baby get that into her lungs!

As soon as the dust settled, he quickly checked Jessica over to make sure she was okay. Then he slid his jacket around her, along with keeping an arm firmly around her. He rose to his feet to appraise the situation.

Where the ceiling once was, bright sunlight greeted them.

The house was in ruins. Shards of wall, furnishings, and plumbing were scattered for several thousands of yards. Whatever had ripped through the house had torn it apart from the inside out.

"An implosion..." He murmured, spinning around on the spot with Jessica still tucked protectively inside his jacket with him. She was whimpering softly, shaken by the trauma of the situation even if she was too little to understand what had happened. Her little fists were balled up and clutching at the Doctor's shirt.

The Doctor spotted a piece of metal that didn't look like it belonged. It was smoldering. He stepped tentatively over to it and peered down at it.

Jessica started to cry again.

"Shhh, shhh, Jessica, it's okay." He lightly pressed his lips to her head as he gazed at the metal object. "The bad alien metal thing can't hurt you anymore." He assured her. She settled down a bit. "But I need to take a closer look at it."

He glanced around and tugging his jacket off, he wrapped it fully around her then moved to set her down several meters away in a safe patch of grass. He patted her head and turned back to the scolding metal.

Baby Jessica crawled out from inside his jacket. She climbed unsteadily to her feet.

"Jessica, stay there." He pointed at her.

She wobbled and fell back down. She remained there obediently. She tugged her fingers back into her mouth as she watched him with large eyes.

He bent down before the metal and scanned it with the sonic. He frowned at what the sonic was telling him.

"Impossible." He muttered, glancing back at Jessica to assure himself she was safe. Then he turned his eyes to a particular spot on the metal.

It was large and shaped like the frontal part of a ship engine's casing. A ship that had been torn to shreds. So, it hadn't been just the house that was destroyed. A ship had been buried beneath it and somehow exploded upwards, taking the house with it.

But why would a space ship be buried under Amy and Rory's home?

He reached out to touch a non-smoking spot on the metal. "Ah!" He jerked his hand back. It was still far too hot.

"This looks like Time Lord technology. How can that be..." He scowled at it. It reminded him of the older ships that the average Gallifreyan had used to get around in. It was hardly as fancy or amazing as a TARDIS, but it got them where they needed to go in space, though not time. But how it had gotten here was a puzzle.

"It shouldn't even exist. Not now. Not anymore..." He grabbed a piece of a broken broom and used it to hoist a chunk of the metal up. He bent down further to peer under it. He could see something blinking. Probably some part of controls of the ship that whomever had gotten a hold of, shouldn't have. He reached in to grab it.

Jessica's sudden and shrill cries filled the air.

The Doctor didn't need to turn around and see if she was okay. The cries alone told him she wasn't.

He immediately dropped everything and jumped up to run to her. As he turned, he saw Silence surrounding her.

He held his hands out in front of him, his hearts plunging. "Okay..." Flashbacks of the Silence he'd previously encountered, ran through his mind. That was the only reason he recognized them, if recognized could be the word for such creatures that erased themselves and their images from minds. "You don't want her. She's human. Fully human." He said cautiously. He noted they'd formed a semi-circle around the baby.

Jessica was crying in fear and she had every right to, thought the Doctor.

"You want me." He reminded them. "So," He waved his hands toward himself. "I'm here. Come and get me, aye?" He suggested invitingly.

Already, he had analyzed the situation and knew he couldn't simply grab Jessica. They could easily kill him and then her before he could get to her. His best hope was to lure them away from her.

At least now he realized what they were after. They wanted Time Lord technology. The ship was that, from what he could tell. The ship, however it had gotten here, had been at their disposal.

He was absolutely positive River, Amy and Rory had no idea about the ship. They would never have exposed Jessica to living in such a dangerous place had they known the Silence were working diligently underneath them to get this ship working.

Now that their plans had apparently backfired, the Doctor offered up the only other thing he was certain they would want. Himself.

It had to work, and River had to return soon for her baby because the only thing worse than being dead, would be leaving another child alone and abandoned to the Silence in the process.

The Silence slid around Jessica, blocking her from the Doctor's view. He didn't like that.

"Come_ on _then!" He practically shouted. He threw his hands up. "No weapons. No TARDIS. No friends to help. Completely unready for whatever you can do to me. So let's have it!" He stood there, once again thinking through his options.

He could try to lunge for her, but he wouldn't be able to make it to her before they could do anything to her or to him. If he did get a hold of her, it might put her in even more danger. But there was no way in hell he was going to let them kidnap another innocent child. He would obliterate them before he would allow that to happen.

He may not be able to remember them, but he would remember this, he vowed. He sent a message to his own psychic paper as well as to the TARDIS' psychic matrix. He continued updating the psychic messages each couple of seconds just so it would be fresh. When it came to the Silence, he spared nothing. They were too easily forgotten and only at the sight of them did he remember their existence.

"Doc...Tor..." One of them slurred at him, pointing toward him with it's over-sized hand. "You are death."

"I am a lot of things. You'd best be careful which one of those things you decide to play with." He threatened softly.

The Silence turned in toward baby Jessica which upset the Doctor greatly. He couldn't see her as they formed around her more securely.

What did they want? What were they doing with her?

A light from the center of them began. They were attacking Jessica.

"No!" He bellowed, leaping at them. He drove himself between them. He was able to slip through surprisingly easily. But he understood their physical forms were less powerful than their electrical and mind manipulating abilities.

He threw himself on top of the toddler who was being bombarded by electrical currents from all directions.

_Why are they doing this to her? _

She was just a helpless baby! She was no threat to them! They'd already stolen little Melody away so there was no reason for them to take her child as well. Nothing was making sense here.

The Doctor yelled out as the streams of electricity hit him, bolting through his internal organs. He heard a loud thunderous noise, but couldn't be bothered with it.

He knew he wouldn't last long if they kept this up. His sole concern was Jessica. If he died, there would only be seconds before they would be after her again. He felt her form under his chest, barely moving.

He could tell by the weak, slow movements of her small body, that she'd been hurt.

"Jessica, hang in there. You've _got_ to! Don't forget your mum, yeah?" He whispered to the little one. His eyes filled with tears. Her mother had left her in his care and now she was going to die. Why the hell did River think he would ever make a good, _safe_ babysitter?

"Stop! _Please_, stop this!" He pleaded loudly with the Silence, jerking at each jolt of electricity. The only thing in his favor was that they didn't seem to realize the amount of electrical current a Time Lord could handle. The amount they were using would kill a human fairly quickly, but he had a bit more endurance than they did.

It still hurt like hell, though.

"Kill me, do what you need to me, but leave her alone! _Please_?" He sounded so meek and lost that anyone with a heart would have burst into tears at his situation and tried to help him.

He stiffened at the horrendous jolts of electricity shooting through him.

It abruptly stopped.

He fell on her, but gingerly kept himself up enough by his arms so as not to harm her. The pain vanished, although the electricity left some burn marks on his clothing. He glanced up and saw the Silence falling.

At first, he was confused. He didn't understand what was happening. Then he realized something else had been happening.

Now that he had a second to rationalize. He'd heard a noise before. A vortex manipulator. As he watched them fall, he understood. They were being shot. He tossed a glance over his shoulder.

_River._

He dragged himself up to his knees and turned back to Jessica.

She lay unnaturally still. Her little body was riddled with scorch marks. He checked her breathing. It was shallow. Her heart was beating abnormally rapidly. "Jessica..." He was now pleading with her. "Don't." He sounded like a lost little boy. "_Please_..." He cried, tears spilling over.

She was dying and he couldn't do a thing to stop it.

"What's happened here?" River didn't know. "You decided to redecorate? I like it. Not sure mum and dad will." She said lightly.

She couldn't see her baby laying motionless on the ground. All she could make out was the Doctor hunched over amidst the debris. She wasn't even sure why she was holding her gun out. She assumed it was a reflex reaction to seeing her parents' home destroyed.

Quickly, she ran over to him and crumpled to her knees at the sight of their daughter. "Jessica! Doctor?" She looked at him.

All he could do was stare back with agonizing pain in his eyes. Pain she refused to acknowledge.

"We have to fix this." She informed him coolly.

"River, I am...Sorry."

"No." She glared at him.

He kept quiet. He was sure he was missing something, but none of that mattered now.

"Leave." River's shocking demand quietly left her lips.

The Doctor's mouth fell open in protest. How could she possibly expect him to abandon her now? With her child dying right here before them. And what had happened to the child anyway?

"Now. You have to." River told him shakily, refusing to allow any tears of her own to fall. She had hope. She also had the knowledge that the Doctor didn't yet know this was his own child. She couldn't let him find out this way. She had a double problem on her hands. Protecting her child, and protecting the Doctor. As horrified as she was at the thought of her child's impending death, she wouldn't neglect the other person in her life that she loved so dearly.

"I can't do that. I won't." He insisted, reaching down to try to assist with Jessica whose life was draining even as they spoke.

"You can. You will. Because I'm asking."

"River-"

She reached over and grabbed his arm, her tone softening now. "If you never do another thing for me, I will forgive that, but do _this_. Leave me alone with her. I'm asking you for this, as her mother."

The Doctor looked deeply into River's eyes. She was asking this, and he couldn't understand why. But he saw that for whatever reasons, she needed this.

The last time he'd ignored the instincts of a mother, it destroyed lives. Including hers. He couldn't do that to her again. As much as he didn't comprehend her reasoning, he decided it was best to trust her instincts. He may have neglected to do so with her mother, but he could keep from making the same mistake with her.

He nodded and slowly stood up. He knew she would find him if she needed him. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was, that he would do all he could to help her, but all he could do was decide he'd done enough damage.

River would need time to grieve, and she should be allowed to do that however she saw fit.

He used Rory's vortex manipulator and left the mother and daughter alone.

River turned back to their baby as she heard the thunderous vortex open up and swallow the Doctor.

"Jessica, I know it hurts, but mummy is here, and...You can fix this." She coached the barely conscious little one. She wasn't at all sure that Jessica had the ability, but she had to believe it was possible. She was her father's daughter, after all, she reasoned.

She ran a hand across the baby's forehead and down her cheek. "You can change. You can stop the pain. Make yourself all, baby." She let the tears accumulate in her eyes as little Jessica's eyes fluttered open to gaze up at her dazedly.

"You can do it! Do it for mummy and mummy." She pleaded, recalling that the toddler referred to her daddy as mummy too. The two people she trusted to care for her more than any others naturally were both 'mummy' in her young mind.

"Fix yourself Jessica. Make your mum proud. You can do it!" River encouraged, trying to keep her tears in check. "Do like mummy and daddy, well mummy and mummy do. Go on then." She nodded at her with an encouraging smile.

How did Time Lord mums and dads handle this? That wasn't something the Doctor ever bothered to mention. It wasn't something she could just ask him because he wouldn't answer it. At least, she knew he would never give her a proper answer.

She didn't want to just sit here watching her daughter die, but this was all she could do. She didn't question why this was happening. Her life was such that she knew life happened and it was how she dealt with it that counted.

The light in Jessica's eyes dimmed. River was about to gather her up into her arms when the golden light slowly started emanating from the toddler. River quickly got up and moved back, but kept talking to her, keeping her voice soothing. "That's it, Jessica. You can do it!"

The baby's body was soon surrounded by the beautiful golden glow. River kept just enough distance to be safe, but close enough to her daughter just in case she needed her.

Jessica's body exploded in the light, and River slung an arm across her eyes at the painful power of the regenerative energy pouring from the child. Jessica remained oddly silent during all of this. River assumed she must have been taking in whatever was happening to her with the same wonder she took in most new experiences.

As soon as River felt the power recede, she pulled her arm away from her eyes. The glow was quickly fading off Jessica and the limp red haired child was replaced with a tot full of energy. Her eyes still glowed, she popped up into a sitting position and then stood, toddling several steps toward her mother. Her legs were more muscular than they had been, her face slightly more elongated like the Doctor's yet softer than his, prettier for sure, and more feminine.

River laughed and clapped, allowing herself a few tears. "Yes! You did it!" She rushed toward her and grabbed her up into a snug hug. "I'm so proud of you, Jessica!" She reached up and touched the child's new hair. No longer ginger. Dark like her father's, curly like her mother's. It was all over the place and River thought it was absolutely perfect!

Jessica grinned at her mother. "Sha sha!"

River laughed again. "I don't speak baby, but I have a feeling you're proud of you too." Everything would be okay, she sighed, utterly relieved. She didn't mind her child's physical appearance changing. She was still her daughter and she'd experienced plenty of that with the Doctor and even she, herself had done the same thing.

The house was another matter. How had it come to this? She looked around. Indeed, her parents would know the Doctor had been around and they wouldn't be very happy with the aftermath. But she didn't care because Jessica was alive and safe.

_The Doctor believed the child was dead. He headed back to the TARDIS, appalled as his lack of ability to protect River's baby._

* * *

><p><em>Next up: The Doctor finally back on the TARDIS. He has to deal with older Jessica, Rory, and, yes, another River!<br>_


	9. Bombarded

**Thanks for the reviews! You all drive me. I decided that I've left you guys waiting far too long for an update! So here is the next chapter finally. Thanks for your patience.**

**Please review! :)**

* * *

><p>Rory stepped down into the console room and was immediately confused at the sight of the young girl at the controls. He glanced around, then back at her as he started to walk over. The Doctor was nowhere in sight.<p>

"Uh, should you be doing that?" He asked, watching as she flipped a switch up and turned a knob.

"Somebody has to." Jessica reached over on tiptoes to knock a different switch into the down position. "I don't know much, but I know we'll be flung off of the vortex if these lights over here don't stop blinking." Her father had taught her that blinking lights were cool. Her mother had taught her how to avoid death by not listening too much to her father on the subject of blinking lights.

"Where's the Doctor?" Rory sounded relatively calm considering the Doctor was always hovering around the console and now was nowhere in sight. Not to mention he'd left a teenager running his very powerful space ship. She didn't handle it with quite the grace of either the Doctor or River, he noticed. He wasn't all together convinced that this was their daughter, although he couldn't pinpoint just what exactly about her gave him that impression.

"I wish I knew." She finished pushing a series of buttons and pulled back. "I'm not sure I did that right..." She was biting her lip nervously.

Rory didn't know how to fly the TARDIS. All he really knew about were the couplings, so he couldn't say much to that. "Which way did he leave by?" _If he went upstairs, he probably just got distracted by something_, Rory considered._ He tends to do that a lot. _

"By way of the blazing light of the vortex. But I'm pretty sure he didn't mean to do it." Jessica shrugged.

Rory blinked. He was rightfully alarmed at this new piece of information. "Is that supposed to happen?"

She gave him a quick smile. "He's the Doctor. When you're talking about him, what you have to ask yourself is, is there ever anything that_ isn't _supposed to happen?"

"That's...A _really_ good point." Rory agreed. "Should we be doing something?"

Jessica tilted her head. "You're asking me that like I'm supposed to know more than you do."

Rory paused. "I think you are, actually."

She looked at him respectfully. He didn't know what to make of that. "We're supposed to wait. We can't land the TARDIS, none of us know how. But he'll be back. He's always back." She assured him.

Her grandfather, no matter the state she found him in (including once as a little boy!), was always able to read between the lines. That was one of the many things she wished she was better at doing, too. Her parents in particular were good at giving off non-verbal cues that she entirely missed. But Rory was instinctive and he just seemed to respond to her in a natural way. She wanted to confess the truth to him.

"Is Amy okay?" She asked, changing topics. She was careful to say Amy and not grandma. Although she was positive that Rory would have handled the truth better than either the Doctor or Amy, she was scared to break the 'don't reveal things too early' rule. It was an important one.

She watched Rory's eyes move from hers and cast downwards. "Not really."

Jessica looked down, too. "Oh." She said quietly, hating to see him upset. She wasn't used to it. Her grandparents were almost always so confident and happy! That made her want to make him feel better.

"Hey." She patted his arm. "Spoilers and all that, so I can't say much, but...She_ will _be okay. Both of you will be. I promise."

When Rory looked up and found her watching him with knowing eyes, he wondered what secrets of _his_ that she held.

Just then a flash of light and thunder erupted, tearing both of their attention to a spot on the opposite side of the time rotor.

Out of the light stumbled the Doctor.

Jessica beamed. "See! Told ya!" She said to Rory, nudging him before turning back to the console.

Rory would have calmed down, but he had seen the Doctor's face. It was a mask of grim horror.

"Doctor?" He asked worriedly. He hadn't forgotten his own woes nor that he needed to have a conversation with the Doctor, but the look on his face was just too stark and startling.

"What are you doing?" The Doctor demanded and Rory's worry increased at the speed with which the Doctor approached the girl.

Jessica glanced up at the Doctor. Confusion was written all over her face. "Me? Something went funny with the-"

Jessica's hands were stretched over several of the controls. The Doctor reached out and grabbed hold of both her hands. He jerked them away from the controls, his eyes narrowed.

"Move away from the console!" He snapped.

Jessica immediately fell back several paces as her eyes welled with tears. "But there was a-"

"I don't care!" He snapped again, causing young Jessica to lapse into silence.

The Doctor didn't look at her. He started plucking away at the keys and dials and levers without a word.

Rory stood there, uncertain for a moment, but he couldn't let this pass without speaking up. "Doctor, she was trying to help. She-"

"Are you now an expert on how the TARDIS functions, Rory?" The Doctor's retort was quick and venomous.

Rory flinched. "No...But I don't think she meant any harm..."

Jessica could hardly believe this was her father. The man who protected even those who tried to kill him. A man who had never,_ ever _raised his voice to her before. She'd heard him yell, yes, but at her? Never! It took all her effort not to cry. At fourteen, she believed that crying in front of her father and grandfather even if they didn't know who she was, would be terribly embarrassing.

"But you see, Rory, she did! She moved the zig zag plotter, interchanged the psychic matrix keys, and equalized the balancer which put pressure on the engines!" His voice rose with each word. And to Rory's concern, each word also drove the young girl back another step, until finally she was running down the stairs and under the console.

"Was that really necessary?" He asked the Doctor as calmly as possible.

The Doctor ignored both of them as he thrust a lever down. The ship shook slightly.

Rory didn't know what was wrong. He doubted the Doctor would tell him if he asked. Even so, he didn't think he should have to stand around being snapped at and watching the Doctor upset a child. He'd come down for a reason.

"I need to speak with you." Rory rarely made demands, but this was one.

The Doctor was busy thinking. He heard Rory's demand. He saw the girl's rapid retreat from the corner of his eye. He had other things on his mind.

As if he needed another reason to hate himself, now he added a child's death to the weight he carried. River Song's child's death. He hadn't protected her and because of that, the child, little Jessica, had been burned to death, suffering a slow, agonizing, and painful death.

He had been there to help Jessica Amelia Song into the world. He had also been there to help her say goodbye to it.

That was the one thing he vowed never to do with people. He didn't stick around long enough to watch them grow old, ill, or die if he could help it. It was painful enough to cause death, but add in having to outlive someone from their beginning to their end, and it felt even more _wrong_.

He no longer cared who the mysterious girl was. Well, he did, but he intended to ignore it. She said Spain was her way home, and that's where he would drop her. At least then, whoever she was, she would be safe and remain alive.

Rory and Amy already had their lives completely ruined by him. And he'd destroyed their daughter's life. _Twice_. He let their granddaughter die, too. There was nothing he could do that would ever be enough to say how sorry he was for it all. He didn't know how to fix it. He couldn't.

The Doctor didn't know why the baby had died. She'd been burned. He remembered the scorch marks and her tiny lungs trying desperately to pull in air as her heart started to give out on her.

The house was destroyed, and he knew it had to be the result of some sort of attack, but he couldn't, for the life of him, remember anything about how or why. Did it even matter now? Was there ever any way he could dare hope to be forgiven for any of this?

He wasn't sure he knew what it felt like to be forgiven. He couldn't even forgive himself.

"We've landed." He announced.

Swallowing down the overwhelming guilt and self-loathing, he finally looked up. Rory was not there.

The creases of his scowl grew deeper. He glanced around, searching for him. He hadn't heard him leave because he'd been in too much of a state to have noticed.

He saw the dark, wild curls of the girl under the glass floor of the console. She sat under it, her head bent, her body slightly shaking. She was crying, he realized. His own doing. He shouldn't have yelled at her like that. None of this had a thing to do with her.

The Doctor felt instant remorse.

He turned around at the sounds of feet treading down the steps leading up into the TARDIS.

Rory hurried down, and the Doctor couldn't read his expression. "Doctor, uh, you've been requested."

"Pardon?" He stared at Rory.

"Just while you were busy..."_ Having a tantrum? _"I heard a sound, went to check it. Upstairs in the room by the pool." Rory nodded his head behind him before stepping off and standing at the console. "But can I first have a moment of your time...?" He requested very politely. Especially considering how the Doctor had been acting.

The Doctor's hands fell to his sides, his fingers rolling over his palms as he walked over to stand in front of Rory and give him his undivided attention. _I hurt your wife when she was a little girl. I kept and keep hurting her still. I'm the reason your child was stolen away. I'm the reason your grandchild will die. _

He smothered these thoughts down and focused only on the Roman.

"What can I do for you, Rory?"

This time, Rory was relieved to note that the Doctor wasn't snapping at him. "Memories." He got right to the heart of the matter.

"Memories?" The Doctor questioned carefully, his eyes scanning Rory's face.

Rory was nervous at how the Doctor would react to this, but he had to say it. "With the little girl we left in Florida. She...Amy, she needs this. She needs memories of...Of our daughter. Time with our daughter. Proper time with our daughter, Melody. Before she became Mels."

"You know I can't do that, Rory. It's all already happened." The Doctor was being gentle, but firm.

"I promised her this."

"Then you lied." There was no kind way to say that.

"No, I didn't." Rory calmly informed him. "I'll give her the memories, with or without your help, Doctor." Rory would. Even if he had to create dangerous paradoxes do to it. Even if he had to call upon his adult daughter for a vortex manipulator in order to take Amy back to 1969 or earlier, and give her those cherished memories, he would do it. Not even someone as formidable as the Doctor was going to stop him doing it, either.

The Doctor searched Rory's eyes and knew. He knew there was absolutely no stopping the Roman. It wasn't that Rory was a defiant person or that he wished to cause the Doctor problems. It was that he'd made a promise to Amy and he wouldn't break it. The Doctor had seen the courage of a man who would wait thousands of years and then some for the woman he loved. He understood.

More than that, he couldn't say no. He couldn't do that to them. Not after everything else he'd already done to them. Things they weren't even aware of yet. Things that would destroy their lives. As if he hadn't already...

Rory was startled to see a small smile start to make it's way across the Doctor's face.

"Doctor?" Uncertainty caused Rory to frown.

"You're so...Human. So you, so_ Rory_." He said this with as much frustration as he did flattery.

Rory didn't know what to say to that, but he didn't have to worry. The Doctor reached out and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Go to your wife. Tell her our next stop will be to memories." He told him with a slightly brighter smile.

Rory looked at him in surprise. He'd expected convincing the Doctor to help would have been harder. He was sure he would have had a fight on his hands. This was easy and he wondered why. With his own troubles looming over him, he nodded toward the glass floor. "What about...?"

The Doctor glanced down. The girl was still in the same position and was still crying. He sighed. "I'll take care of that. Now off you go." He watched Rory head up.

He took one more look down at the girl. He wasn't in a big hurry to deal with crying and upsets, even if he was the one who caused them. Maybe if he gave her some time, she would calm herself down. Most people did. Avoiding the crying seemed like a wise idea to him just now.

He wanted to check out just what or who might be in the room by the pool. It intrigued him that something or one had just gotten into his ship without him noticing. He bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and rounded a corner, quickly rushing eagerly into the room.

So into the room he rushed, only to find himself confronting a mop of curly dark blonde hair for the third time the very same day. He stopped short and stared, mouth appropriately hanging open once more.

"River." He greeted her, completely at a loss for words which was rather unusual for him.

She turned slowly toward him, her eyes full of...was that hate? It was definitely anger. She had every right to feel that way after the death of a child and especially because of him. He half expected her to pull a gun out and shoot him stone dead.

"I'm...I'm so sorry." He quickly began. "She...I didn't mean for this to happen..." His own eyes welled up as he reached out for her. The Doctor was wanting to comfort her even though he could see she was nearly enraged at him.

She stared into his watery eyes and a flash of bewilderment melted the anger.

She didn't hesitate before falling into his arms, even in her apparently angry state. But it felt like she was doing so more to comfort him than herself. Her arms slid around him, caressing his back as his pulled her close against him. The least he could do was be here for her when she needed a shoulder to cry on, he thought. But she wasn't the one needing a shoulder. He was grateful she was allowing him this even if she did hate him. The Doctor's guilt was growing by leaps and bounds and threatened to overwhelm all other emotions.

"I could kill you for this." She murmured into his neck.

"I know." He accepted her words and would have been surprised if she'd felt any other way about him at this point. Were River to attempt to kill him right here and now, he wasn't entirely sure he would try to stop her this time.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" She asked, pulling back to look at him.

He let his hands drop down, not wanting to upset her further even though her hand was still caressing the side of his face.

"I..." He gave her a mournful look. "River, if I could have known this would happen..."

She shook her head. "Don't you dare deny you didn't want this to happen!"

"What...?" Complete disbelief worked it's way across the Doctor's face as he attempted came to grips with what she was accusing him of.

She sighed. "I suppose it was inevitable. I couldn't expect it to last. We have to let go some time, don't we?" She leaned in and kissed him.

His heart obviously wasn't in it. If she believed what she was saying, how could hers be? He was confused. So confused he gently pushed her back, his hands resting on her arms.

"You think I _wanted_ this?" He asked as calmly as possible. Did she think he let her daughter die on purpose?

"Of course you did, dear." River said lightly.

He drew in a sharp breath. "But, River..."

"You've always wanted this. It's why you let her go." She shrugged and tried to move in for another kiss, but his hands fell away. He took a full step back from her, appalled at her implications.

She stopped, her hand hanging in mid-air a moment before slowly falling to her side. She watched him with confusion clouding her eyes.

"How can you think I wanted this?" His eyes were full of tears, she saw with some shock. "How could you even suggest that I-"

"My love," She addressed him gently. Why was he getting so upset about this? It was natural for her to, but she couldn't fathom his reasoning for being at all upset. "You're a push-over and you always have been when it comes to her. You know you're guilty of this mess, but that's hardly a reason for you to get upset. You got what you wanted."

"_What_?" How could she be saying these things to him? How could she believe such things? Had he left her with so wrong an impression that she actually believed he would do something so low? He realized with some surprise that her opinion actually did mean quite a lot to him.

"River, on my _life_, I wouldn't have let that happen to her if I could have prevented it! How can you possibly think that I wanted Jessica hurt?"

Raising an eyebrow, River looked him over. "Doctor, what _are_ you talking about? Are we even having the same conversation?" Her question insightful.

Being a time traveler, and a time traveler's wife, did make her very used to thinking outside of the box. "You're the one who decided to take her out for her first spin in the TARDIS! Did you really think she'd come back not wanting more?" She challenged. Of course she was mad. Her baby girl had embarked on her very first TARDIS trip despite River making a 'no fly' rule when Jessica was a baby. She could go into the TARDIS while it was grounded, that was it. But the Doctor had helped her to break that rule. On_ purpose_!

Worse still, the Doctor had failed to make sure River was there for such an important event. "She hasn't shut up about it ever since! And why are you staring at me like that?"

It required a great effort for the Doctor to collect himself. In the moment, he could only find one logical conclusion.

"When did you learn to speak baby?"

"I _don't _speak baby." River replied simply.

They were both watching each other.

"Then how do you know she won't shut up about it?" He probed, his emotions high, making him shift from foot to foot.

River leaned in, her face inches from his, a placating smile in place and her voice gentle. "Because...She's not a baby."

The Doctor looked more edgy than ever now. "But she _can't_ not be a baby! That's the only explanation. This has to be before _it _happened, otherwise...But it's not. How is it not? How old is she?" He demanded.

"She's five years old...Doctor, are you alright?" Worry creased her brow as she studied him. Why was he looking so stunned?

"She's five years old..." The Doctor repeated these words as though they were completely foreign to him. "How is that possible?" He was being quiet now. That was usually a sign that something was troubling him greatly.

River frowned and gently took his hand in hers. "Doctor, what is it? What's wrong?"

"River, what happened?" He asked cautiously. Forming too many wrong opinions in his mind wasn't helping matters. He needed to get to the bottom of this. But already he felt lighter. Jessica had somehow survived even though she'd been near death! Although one of hundreds of scenarios crossed through his mind within a fraction of a second, was that she could have regenerated, it really wasn't the one that he thought was most plausible.

The thing many people didn't take into account about the Doctor were the_ reasons _he appeared to be a bumbling idiot so often.

First, he wasn't human. Even though he was well enough aware of many human traits, behaviors, and customs, they didn't all always come naturally for him and he didn't always consider them because they were always a foreign concept for him.

But of equal importance was the fact that he was a genius and then some. He was constantly calculating the odds of various occurrences at any given moment. When one was busy noticing _everything_, it could be difficult to notice any_ one _thing. He couldn't take everything with the same amount of weight, so he shuffled through the information his mind processed with rapid-fire decisions. He didn't always get it right. Often, he got it very, very wrong. But for him, that was part of the fun! Why shuffle through thousands of facts he picked up when he could just use the sonic, or stumble into something dangerous instead!

Of course, it wasn't very much fun when someone got hurt.

"From your perspective, what happened when I babysat?"

Try as she might, River couldn't figure out what the problem was. The Doctor had looked after his daughter quite often. Based on what he said though, she knew revealing too much would lead to the inevitable spoilers being...Spoiled. She really should have checked her diary on this one. "Dear, you're going to have to be a bit more specific than that."

"Your parents' home. The one that imploded. Today. For you, maybe not today. You left her in my care and she died. Electrical burns destroyed the functionality of her internal organs." He said bluntly.

It took a moment, but River finally grasped what he was asking about. "Oh, that."

"Yes, _that_."

She squeezed his hand. "That happened today for you? My, my, it's far too early on your time line for _my_ conversation with you, isn't it." Not that it mattered terribly much. She knew he would remember the conversation when it was time for him to. Which meant he already knew how she felt and that she would be upset about him taking their daughter off on a trip without her and he still went ahead and did it anyway. "You're lucky I don't slap you again." She muttered.

"What happened." The Doctor asked impatiently. "To Jessica?"

River hesitated, looking nervous, which in turn, made the Doctor more confident. He stared her down. His eyes were demanding the answer just as loudly as his mouth had been a second before.

A nervous smile matched her nervous stance. "She lived! Isn't that wonderful?"

"River."

And here it came.

A wink. And then.

"Spoilers."

"Gah!" He threw his hands up, giving in. But this news worked it's magic on him.

A grin spread across his face. The images of the dying, burned toddler faded from his immediate thoughts and were replaced with the shadow of a five year old was very much alive.

"She lived." He repeated her announcement. He hadn't destroyed River's life again. He hadn't helped an innocent baby to die. He hadn't hurt Amy even more. The inevitable relief he was feeling made him positively giddy.

"River, I could kiss you!"

"Well then. What's stopping you?"

He turned such a bright crimson that River couldn't help laughing.

"Too early for much of that then?" She reached into a pocket and pulled out her blue book, sifting through it. "Let's see...Where are we?" She paused on a page and glanced over it. Her laughter stopped.

The Doctor saw the change in her, but like most things when it came to her, he really didn't know what it could mean. He remained silent, reveling in the knowledge that Jessica was safe and sound.

She finally looked up at him. "Doctor, you'd better go."

"Go? _Where_?"

"Back down to the console room. You're needed now." She leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his lips one final time before flashing out with her vortex manipulator.

"That woman..." The Doctor was still grinning, annoyance, relief, confusion, elation, wonder, all trickling through him.

He strolled back downstairs, prepared for anything.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Side Note: In case there is any confusion, the anger the Doctor showed toward teen Jessica wasn't because of her at all. It had to do with his guilt and grief over what happened to baby Jessica that he was in a mood when he came back to the TARDIS and wasn't so nice.<strong>_

_**Next Chapter: Two people have important secrets to tell the Doctor, Rory decides he hates a red head, and the Doctor reveals a secret desire of his. **_


	10. Confessions

**Thank you, guys! I'm glad you all are enjoying this story so much! I apologize for my chronic lateness. I definitely need to add a warning label about my always ending up months behind, to my profile. But I do get back to things eventually.**

**Please take the time to leave a review. :)**

* * *

><p>The Doctor stepped off the landing and took in the current state of the area. Nothing seemed urgent enough to warrant his rushing back down to the console room.<p>

Amy was present. She and Rory were standing next to the railing and talking in quiet whispers.

Something else was different. Peering down, he observed two figures under the glass floor.

_The girl and..._

The Doctor squinted, as if he couldn't make out who was with her. He very well could. He just wasn't quite willing to believe his own eyes.

_River Song._

"Is there anywhere you're _not_?" He exclaimed. River gazed up and flashed an enchanting smile, but returned her attention to the girl beside her. Her arm was around the girl in a consoling gesture.

The Doctor was less surprised this time, but more relieved that River was there. He wasn't feeling too confident in himself about dealing with the girl.

With that seemingly squared away, he moved to the console and quickly set coordinates. Amy needed her memories and he would let Rory give her those. He respected Rory, even though he didn't always like to show it. He was proud of the boy who waited and the man he had become.

"Are you sure about this?" Amy's eyes were fixed on Rory's. She leaned in close, expecting some assurances that he knew exactly what the Doctor was up to.

Rory took her hand in his. "We _are_ getting memories with our daughter, Melody Williams." He stubbornly insisted.

"Pond." Amy corrected. Rory didn't argue the point. Legally, Melody was a Pond and a Williams, depending on where and when in the Universe one went to check her records.

He wasn't at all sure about how the Doctor would pull this off. He had his doubts about the problems involved with what he was demanding happen. But stopping his wife's tears had been first and foremost in his plans and those hadn't changed.

From the moment he'd told her they would get to go visit little Melody Pond and make some memories, Amy had gotten a serene look on her face. A calm came over her and the veil of pain lifted away. That's when Rory knew he was making the right choice. He felt hopeful that she would be able to find some peace about losing their daughter after this.

"The Doctor knows what he's doing." Rory saw the look Amy gave him. He didn't care, as long as she was hopeful and not sorrowful, he could deal with just about anything else. "I mean he has-" _A plan? Not likely._ He settled. "Everything will work out. We're going to see Melody and not have anything deadly, traumatic, or life-altering happen. This time."

Amy knew there was no way she would get her baby back. Their child was gone and anything they might possibly do to get her back would only erase River's life. She would never feel good about it, but the thought of being able to hold her child again and give her the love she deserved, did help place, an albeit blistering, scab over the fresh wounds of her heart.

Not a thing of any in this was Rory's fault. Amy tried to lighten the mood. "With an attitude like that, it makes me glad I didn't take Vincent up on his offer."

"What offer?" And who was this Vincent, Rory wondered.

"He fancied me. Wanted me to marry him, but I turned him down." Amy informed him.

Looking startled, Rory gave Amy's hand a slight shake. He turned more toward her, facing her. "What? But when was this? Which Vincent?"

"Before Stone Hinge. Van Gogh. What other Vincent did you think I meant?"

"Uh, not that one." Hesitantly, he continued. "Vincent Van Gogh? The painter?"

"The one and only."

"But. Why did Vincent Van Gogh want to marry you?" That got him a nice little glare. "I mean, you were engaged. To me. He _did_ know that?"

Suddenly, Amy wasn't looking at him.

"Amy?" Rory frowned. "You did tell him that, right?" It wasn't often that Rory became assertive with Amy. When it came to certain things, he was particularly touchy and his then-fiance being proposed to by a famous dead artist was on that list.

"It couldn't be helped!" Amy protested, pulling her hand free and plucking at her hair.

"But-"

"You didn't exist, Rory." The Doctor spoke up from around the console. Both Amy and Rory turned to stare at him. They hadn't realized it, but their voices had been growing steadily louder.

"You were eaten by the crack in the Universe. Amy couldn't remember you because you technically didn't exist. Therefore, she technically wasn't engaged to you." The Doctor didn't look up while moving around the console. "But you needn't worry. I don't think your wife liked the idea of lots and lots of babies with our dear friend Vincent, even if they would have had the reddest hair there ever was. Imagine how much ginger there would have been!" He paused too look up at Amy and Rory. Both were staring at him with equal amounts of horror.

"And that was probably really very not the right thing to say." He looked from the nose to the legs and back again. He didn't question why his mouth so often spoke ahead of his mind the way humans did. His mind was always far too ahead of his mouth for it to ever catch up. Words were inadequate and impossibly small compared to the formation of thoughts in his head. He never would expect his mouth to catch up. He did, however, occasionally regret the reaction his blurting out one in a thousand thoughts created. Like now.

Rory paled. The Doctor wouldn't have thought such a feat possible of the Roman, but he did just that. His skin turned the color of chalk and his eyes grew large. It didn't take the genius of a Time Lord to figure out that Rory was not entirely thrilled with the image of his wife and Vincent making babies together.

Amy glared at the Doctor. Had he been standing close, she might have smacked him. She'd shared many of her adventures with her husband, but that had been one she preferred he not know about. It was her own fault for blurting it out, but still, the Doctor didn't have to go and add to it.

"Babies." Rory turned to stare at his wife. "With Vincent Van Gogh? Lots of red haired babies with the lunatic painter?"

"I turned him down." She reminded him.

"Did you flirt with him?"

She didn't like where this was going. "You weren't even alive, Rory. You'd just died."

"So you didn't wait? You couldn't even wait a few months out of respect for me?"

"She didn't remember you, Rory." The Doctor reminded him. "You didn't just die, you were _erased_. You ceased existence. She thought she was single, and for all intents and purposes, she was."

Rory turned his attention to the Doctor. "You could have said something or stopped it."

"You wanted me to tell Amy she had a dead fiance who no longer existed so she couldn't remember him and therefore should act as if she were engaged even though you didn't exist and had, in fact, died?"

Rory shrugged. "Well..." The Doctor had a point. He thought about it. Still, why not? It wouldn't have been any stranger than any other thing where the Doctor was concerned. But he let it go. While silently deciding that he never wanted to meet Mr. Van Gogh and he wanted to keep Amy as far away from him as possible. He may have been an exceptional artist, but he could never have loved Amy the way Rory did.

Feeling that problem was dealt with, the Doctor turned his attentions back toward the console. Until River and the girl came up the stairs. He watched them. River moved with her usual confidence. The girl trailed behind her, hanging her head.

"Hello Sweetie." River wasn't smiling, but that didn't faze the Doctor. Her mouth hadn't moved. Now that _did_ faze him.

"How did you _do_ that?" The Doctor was brimming with excitement as he gestured toward her. "You spoke without opening your mouth! Did you learn to throw your voice? Take a class in ventriloquism? Or perhaps it's a form of telepathy?"

Raising an eyebrow, River nodded in a direction slightly behind where the Doctor was standing.

He turned around.

_Another River._

He spun around, then back again. Eyes enormous. Mouth fully hanging open. He looked completely thrown.

Identical River Songs. The only difference came in the form of their clothing. The River with the girl wore a more formal dress.

Five River Songs in one day. One giving birth. One snogging him and placing him in charge of a baby. Another confronting him about an event that had yet to take place. And now two in the same room with him. Who knew what they would need from him.

There was only so much even a great legend and Time Lord could handle.

The Doctor finally broke.

"Hang on, wait! _Nobody move_!" He boomed.

The five other occupants of the room froze in their places and stared at him after this unexpected outburst. He pointed to the newest River.

"_You_!"

She pointed to herself questioningly.

"Yes, _you_! _Stay there_!"

She obliged even though the Doctor rapidly descended upon her in what could be described as a threatening manner.

Much to the surprise of River, Rory, Amy, Jessica, and possibly the other River, the Doctor accosted River.

His hands were suddenly coming at her. Both of them glided their way swiftly through her golden hair, digging deeply in, and making the already wild curls, even messier. She stood still, baffled, staring at him inquisitively. But she allowed him to do this with full trust, if not full understanding.

"Lose something, dear?" She questioned, unable to tear her eyes from his currently intense looking, yet enraptured face.

Amy giggled. Jessica giggled.

"Doctor, what _are_ you doing?" Amy asked, laughing full out. She didn't really expect an answer, and she didn't get one.

Jessica wasn't happy with what was to come, but even she couldn't help giggling at her father attacking her mother's hair. He'd never done that before! At least, she'd never seen him do so. Although, she knew that he did seem to love curly, bouncy hair. The only thing he could possibly have loved more, was if it had been ginger.

How to explain his growing desire to feel those fluffy, bouncy curls of hers! It was unavoidable as far as the Doctor was concerned. What with her constantly showing up today and making the itch he had to touch them, irresistible. How could he have possibly denied himself this any longer?

Slowly, he stopped. He gave her a placid grin. He unhurriedly disentangled his fingers from her thick locks. She blinked at him, her ruffled hair sticking up more so than usual.

He looked entirely unapologetic about the whole thing. And oddly satisfied. It had been even softer and far more silky than he imagined it could possibly have been!

"I need to speak with you, Doctor." The now disheveled looking River requested, after collecting herself. Her expression was serious and her hands were slightly trembling. She was nervous. Possibly even scared.

"What's wrong?" The Doctor frowned.

"That will have to wait, I'm afraid." The other River piped up from behind him. He whirled around to face her and the girl. The girl wasn't giggling any longer.

"Why?"

"Because right now..." She reached over and pulled the girl up beside her by the hand, giving her hand a comforting squeeze. "_She_ has something important she needs to speak with you about."

"It can't be more urgent then what _I've_ got to talk to him about." The River with the tousled hair protested.

"Oh, I think it can be. It _is_."

The Rivers stared at one another. The nervous looking River's eyes flickered to the girl, then back to the other River. A slightly surprised, but understanding look crossed her features. She gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

Looking from one River to the other, the Doctor was puzzled. "But one of you has to be further along on your time stream than the other. One of you remembers being in the other's place and would know which is the more important, or which came first."

The River standing by the girl, addressed the issue. "Of course! But you can't expect us to ignore established events. Your rules, remember? I have to argue with myself if that's what I remember happening." Also, in her opinion, what Jessica had to talk to the Doctor about _was_ more important.

Not because it was more important than what the other River, her younger self, had to say, but because her daughter was in pain and needed to get it out. Her daughter came before herself. Simple as that.

She looked at her former self and thought her hair was ridiculously out of place. Why had the Doctor done that? Even having remembered the Doctor attacking her hair like that before, it still surprised her to see it happening and she never had gotten an explanation for that behavior, come to think of it!

"And right now you need to talk to her." She pointed to the girl. "_I_," She pointed to the other River. "Can wait."

She turned to the girl and whispered something in her ear. The girl nodded, looking miserable.

River pulled away and spoke louder. "Time for me to go now." Without even bothering to flirt with the Doctor first, she tweaked her vortex manipulator and left.

The River with the mussed up hair stood in place, several feet from her parents, still looking entirely too nervous for the Doctor's liking. But she would have to wait. Apparently.

"Okay," The Doctor clapped his hands together with a big intake of breath. "I guess you're supposed to tell me something now?" The Doctor asked the girl as he walked over to stand before her.

She wouldn't look at him. "Can it be alone? Just us?" She asked him in a subdued tone.

"Sure, why not." He flapped a hand toward the stairs and followed her down. Voices from above told him that Amy, Rory, and River were now chatting.

There was that, at least. Amy seemed more at ease talking with her adult, regenerated daughter than she was in the beginning.

He wasn't sure about the girl now. She wasn't River, even as Melody. Yet River seemed to have taken to her quite well. Much as Amy had taken to River upon first meeting her without even knowing their connection.

Did this teenager have some connection to River that he hadn't yet sussed out? There were infinite possibilities there, but he settled on leaning toward her simply having seen the girl crying and talked to her, finding out she had something to tell him.

He stood, facing the girl, his hands clasped loosely in front of him. She stood, her arms folded, staring at his bow tie. She not quite able to make eye contact as yet.

"I have a confession." She blurted out, then bit her lip.

"Confession?" He carefully questioned.

This girl, she knew too much about the TARDIS. She was far too comfortable being in here. He knew he was missing something, but he'd been patient about it. Things like this tended to come out in their own time. He wasn't one to push them out, unless absolutely necessary.

"Yeah." She slowly raised her eyes to his. Hers were full of fresh tears. "I did something horrible."

New tears wove their way down her cheeks.

The Doctor cringed. He didn't do well with crying people. Had she done something more to the TARDIS than he previously thought? He shouldn't have snapped at her. He often tampered with things he knew he ought not to, so how could he fault her on it? He hadn't even been angry with her. He'd been upset with himself about allowing baby Jessica to die. But she had lived! He didn't know how that had happened, but since her mother was a child of the TARDIS, it didn't seem entirely improbable to him.

"Did you do something to the TARDIS?" He asked calmly, all traces of accusation now gone from his face and demeanor. "It's okay if you did, you can tell me." He assured her.

Jessica could see it in his eyes. Uncertainty about her. He didn't know if he could trust her or not.

Her mother told her she had to tell him her deepest, darkest of secrets. Only because it was somehow time and because it was supposed to be part of her healing process, whatever that meant. She hadn't wanted to. Why her mother decided to heap this onto her now, after she was already upset, was beyond her. But then, her parents did work in mysterious ways.

She was terrified of disappointing him. What if he yelled at her again? What if he looked at her with disgust? Worse, what if he hated and feared her? She didn't think her single heart could take the rejection. He'd always loved her and accepted her. What if that was about to change?

Her father meant the world to her. He may not have been as gentle as her grandfather, but he'd always looked at her with pride and love. But even though this was his past from her perspective, what if it had taken him a long time to get to the point of loving her? What if for the rest of her life, she only met versions of him that wanted nothing to do with her?

Plus, she knew time could be re-written. What if she did something different this time that made him never want anything more to do with her, even in her own past? Would all of those beloved childhood memories evaporate as if they never existed? Would she be left remembering dual time lines, one in which her father loved and cherished her, and another in which he looked at her with hatred and anger? She had to force herself to stop thinking of the what ifs. What ifs would never allow her to get the words out that needed to be said.

She swallowed and forced her eyes to stay on his. He didn't know her yet. He knew nothing about her. But there was some compassion there in his eyes. She could see it. Just a hint of it there, for her.

She clung to it.

"No, that was...The psychic matrix was overloading and that thing, um, with the wrong numbers kept happening so I was just trying to stabilize her." She fidgeted, one hand weaving around the other as she brought them down in front of her. They landed before her much the same way the Doctor's did, clasped.

"Overloading?" The Doctor frowned. Something about that wasn't right.

Jessica nodded, distracted. "Yes, but that doesn't matter now. Not after what I've done!" Her tears fell in earnest now. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!" She cried.

The Doctor's instincts took over. Much to his own bemusement, he found himself reaching out and hugging the girl. "Hey." He patted her back before stepping back and giving her a comforting smile. "Whatever it is you've done, it can't be all that bad. Well, I suppose it could be, but I'm sure I can fix it." He told her confidently.

Jessica wasn't comforted. After what she did, or rather by his perspective, will do, she believed she didn't deserve the Doctor's comfort and reassurances.

He watched her, wondering what it was she had done that could possibly make her feel so guilt-ridden. She didn't seem the sort to do bad things, but then he'd only just met her.

"No. You can't fix it. I..." Her voice wavered as she wiped at her tears, forcing herself to calm down. She met his eyes again.

"I hurt you. I tried to kill you."

"Oh, lots of people try to do that." The Doctor waved a dismissive hand, having immediately and lightly responded to her confession.

"But..." How could he take such a thing so calmly, Jessica wondered. "I actually tried, or will try, to kill you! And I'll really hurt you bad." Her last few words came out shaky.

The Doctor scowled. "Why would you do something like that?" He asked without anger.

"I..." Jessica felt an enormous amount of pressure from all of this. She hadn't expected to have to be the one to tell him, but her mother insisted it was good for her psychologically. But she was at a loss to explain herself. "I-I don't know! I just...Did it. _Will_ do it." She corrected herself. "I did it in my past, your future."

"Well." The Doctor processed this easily enough. "Thanks for the warning." It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to kill him and it wouldn't be the last. Unless she succeeded. Since she said she tried to kill him and had hurt him, it suggested to him that he had survived whatever it was she did. The why was more important to him than the how. She didn't know why she'd tried to kill him. That didn't happen quite as often as people who had an actual motive.

"I didn't mean to do it!" She burst into more tears and covered her face with her hands.

The Doctor reached out to touch her arm. "There, there." He was rubbish at this comforting stuff! "I believe you." He was very good at reading people and even if he wasn't too sure about her, his instincts told him she was sincere and truly hurting over her actions. "Plus, you warned me which is more than I normally get from my would-be killers. That's something, isn't it?"

She just continued crying.

The Doctor decided he had to do something. "I don't know who you are or what you will do, have done, or anything, but I forgive you."

If only someone could forgive him for his deeds.

"How?" Her muffled voice answered from behind her hands. "H-How can you forgive something like that?"

"Are you sorry for it?" He asked lightly.

She looked up. "Yes, of course I am! I wish I'd never done it. I wish I could have stopped it." She agonized.

"Then I see no reason why I shouldn't forgive you completely." He smiled at her. This girl, whoever she was, and why ever she would try to kill him, was no killer. She was not some evil person bent on destroying others. He was positive of it. He could sense the goodness in her.

Jessica didn't know what to say. She was overcome by his kindness and compassion. How could she have ever doubted his love for her? Even when she had tried to kill him, he'd been there for her.

He may have snapped earlier, but he didn't know her yet and obviously had things on his mind. She couldn't believe how relieved she felt!

She hugged him again, laughing and crying at the same time. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" He didn't hate her! And it had gone a lot better than she ever imagined. Maybe she wouldn't have to live with the crushing guilt forever. Maybe her mum had been right, after all.

The Doctor laughed along with her, hugging her back. "You're very welcome." What was it about this girl that made him feel as if he knew her even though he knew he'd never met her before in his life?

Letting go of her, he started up the stairs. "Now that we've settled that, let's get you home."

He jumped up off the top step only to have the nervous, messy haired River Song grab his arm and pull him up some stairs and into a corridor.

"I need to take that girl home, and I have other things to do. Plans for your parents." He protested, tugging his arm free.

She turned to face him.

"If one more of you Rivers pops up today, I'll-" He stopped at the look on her face.

Her eyes were dry, she didn't look distraught, but something was definitely wrong. She was shaking and kept biting her lip nervously. She shifted from one foot to the other. He'd never see her like this before.

"River, what's the matter?" His concern weighed his words down with an edge to his voice.

This day had been particularly long and merciless. What other horrors could possibly be awaiting him?

There certainly must have been a matter to cause River to be so agitated.

"I need to tell you something." She looked almost as nervous as the girl had, except River was making eye contact without a problem.

"Today is a day for telling me lots of somethings." The Doctor observed. "Go on then." He encouraged, steeling himself for whatever was to come.

With River, he pretty much expected anything. Especially today.

"What is it this time? Another monster ripping a building apart?" He rattled on. "Need a sitter? An obstetrician? Or perhaps you'd like your house blown up again? Do you need to tell me you plan on killing me, too? Again?"

"It's not as simple as that." As if anything was ever simple with him.

"You see, it's..." River trailed off and shook her head. The Doctor waited ever patiently, albeit anxiously. He didn't like a nervous River. He liked even less that she had yet another surprise for him today. While ordinarily he loved surprises, he'd had his fair share. At least for a good twenty-four hours.

River took his hand and tugged him back out of the corridor.

"You're being indecisive, River. Is that a good thing? No, it probably isn't, is it." He mused while being lead back toward the stairs. Amy and Rory were chatting quietly to themselves. The girl was standing in front of the console, looking at this and that, but carefully avoiding touching anything now. Her face was stained with dry tears, but she looked relatively relieved and calm.

The Doctor stopped at the upper railing and rested his hands atop it with a quiet sigh.

"Do you see her?" River spoke up gently from beside the Doctor.

"She's not invisible, so yes."

"Isn't she beautiful?"

The Doctor took his eyes off the girl to take in River. That wasn't a River-like statement to make about some random girl.

"Is she you?" He asked bluntly. Even though the girl had said she wasn't, he wasn't completely convinced.

"No." River was smiling with the softest of smiles. It piqued the Doctor's curiosity all the more. She knew something about the girl. She had to.

"Who is she?"

"Look at her." River persisted.

The Doctor humored her even though he knew well enough what the girl looked like.

"I'm looking. Who or what am I looking at, exactly?"

Both were watching the girl. She slid into a chair and brushed her curly dark ponytail back over a shoulder. She pulled a foot up so that her knee rested against her chest, her other foot still on the floor. Locking her fingers around her leg, she resumed her watchful eye on the TARDIS' console.

She seemed ever alert to the TARDIS and what the ship's systems were doing.

She also looked more relaxed now that she'd gotten that whole killing the Doctor thing off her chest.

"Well?" The Doctor prompted. The quiet from beside him was a little unsettling. It was taking River a while to answer him.

"Who is she?" He repeated his question, his eyes still on the girl. He felt River's hand slide atop of his. He didn't move.

River took her eyes from Jessica, to the Doctor's face. "A daughter."

A look of mild confusion crossed the Doctor's face. "A daughter?" He repeated haltingly, as though the words were foreign to him. "_Whose_ daughter?"

River's hand was trembling now on top of his as it rested on the railing. She wasn't answering him. His other hand covered hers, settling it between both of his to try to offer some comfort, and still her tremor.

River was trembling, nervous, pale, had a connection with a strange girl who appeared on his TARDIS with a burning vortex manipulator. Not to mention a confession about killing him. River was a mum. Her daughter died. Yet, her daughter lived. The pieces were finally sliding themselves into place together in his mind. It was all making sense now.

"River?" He found his mouth suddenly quite dry. "Whose daughter?"

The answer wasn't the one he was expecting.

River's gaze followed his to the young girl below. A tender smile found it's way onto her lips before the most heartfelt of words escaped.

"_Yours_."

* * *

><p><strong>I know what you're thinking. <em>How could she leave it there<em>? Not to worry. This time I truly won't leave you waiting on edge forever. I'll have a new chapter up before you know it. Well, not _before_ you know it but certainly in a much more timely fashion for a change! **


	11. Hugs and Bullets

**It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm sorry for my slowness and thankful for your patience. Here is a much needed update! This one got away from me a bit. You can take that any way you like.**

_Edit: Thank you to uhmm for helping me catch a ridiculous misspelling! Tele vs. Telly. It isn't because I'm an American. It's because I got my (fairly limited) Spanish mixed in there on accident. *grins*_

**Please review? :) **

* * *

><p>The Doctor's hands fell away from River's. He twisted completely to openly stare at her. A second later, nervous laughter trickled from his lips. "Sorry, what?" His fingers danced across the edges of the front of his tweed jacket. "I thought you said,'Yours', but clearly you meant,'Mine' because she is yours, yeah? She's Jessica?"<p>

River turned to face him, leaned in closer, and gave him her most mischievous smile. "Yes."

"Yes, what? Yes, she's 'mine' as is mine being you, River Song's? Or yes as in 'yours' being mine, as in me, the Doctor's?" His words came out all jumbled, even for him, but somehow River understood them perfectly.

"Yes." Came River's frustratingly vague, but blatantly truthful reply.

He searched her eyes for some sign that what he heard was wrong, misread, misplaced, anything but what she was actually telling him. "But that means..."

River's smile grew. "_Yes_." She quietly emphasized. Her own nerves had calmed just slightly, but she was rather enjoying seeing the Doctor so absolutely bewildered.

"But...Then...You and I...We must have...?"

"Yes." She grinned at him. His eyes were full on hers, his mouth trying to form words that might bring reason to this new bit of information.

His mind raced back through this already trying day and the bits and pieces that fit into what River was trying to tell him. The young girl mysteriously turning up in his TARDIS as if she owned it. A girl who seemed to know him and his friends. A girl with secrets. A girl who looked at him as if she trusted him so completely that it was almost painful. A girl with eyes a familiar bright green. Her hair the same shade as his own. It's untamed curls matching that of the blond woman who was grinning so madly at him just now. How could he have not seen it sooner?

He whirled back to peer down at the child in his TARDIS. She remained seated, gazing at the console, her eyes full of intelligence, curiosity, wonder, and worry.

Images of the small red headed tot from earlier played across his vision. A child so vibrant and happy and well loved. A child who could regenerate. A child whom he had delivered into the world with his own two hands.

His hearts were leaping about uncontrollably in his chest.

"Doctor?" River's grin had faded. He was taking a while to absorb this. She was starting to fear he might be upset about Jessica's existence. It had to be difficult for him to come to terms with the idea of being a father. Again.

The Doctor gave a breathy, excited little laugh. He turned and grabbed River gently by the shoulders. She saw his eyes were shining with tears, but he was smiling.

He leaned in and kissed her fully on the lips. She gladly reciprocated. Her arms slid around his neck to pull him in closer. She knew this particular kiss could just as easily been handed off to one of his beloved companions. He likely would have kissed Amy, Rory, or any random person he cared about who happened to be standing nearest to him at the moment, but she took it, and adored it, for what it was. It wasn't lust, it was elation.

He pulled back and grinned at her. "A daughter!" He bounced up and back down on the toes of his shoes as he said this.

"Yes, a daughter."

"_Our _daughter!" His eyes were still full of un-shed tears, and some pride.

"Yes, ours." River couldn't help but grin back at seeing such joy in him.

"I have a daughter!" He let go of River's shoulders and abandoned her to waltz his way down the stairs, making quite a show of it.

Amy and Rory stopped their chatter to turn and watch the Doctor's antics. Both looked confused at seeing the Doctor's watery eyes, endearing smile, and his ridiculous dance down the steps. He sauntered over to stand in front of Jessica who hadn't appeared to notice the Doctor's unusual behavior. Distracted and confused by his form suddenly blocking her view of the console, she stared up at him.

"Come here, you!" He reached down and grabbed her hand, plucking her up out of the chair. Before she could react, she found herself enveloped in a colossal hug. The Doctor's arms were securely locked around her, squeezing her tight. She didn't know what to make of this, but hugged him back just as tightly.

"Doctor?" Amy questioned, her brows knitting together as she tried to puzzle out the Doctor's seemingly erratic response to the strange girl in the TARDIS.

He laughed, his chin resting on top of her mess of dark curls. "Oh, Pond, don't think you won't find out what's going on soon enough. You always find out what you want." He assured Amy without looking up.

His focus was on Jessica just now. She had a single heart, this he knew. River Song was human. Well, human enough to make that possible. Which made their daughter human enough to go undetected by his Time Lord senses. It had been a long time since he'd been a dad. Too long, perhaps. Though, to his mind, such a thing was always dangerous. A child of a Time Lord would surely always be in danger. Particularly any child of his. But he wouldn't let that spoil this.

Jessica was special. She was important. Not because of Time Lord DNA, or having spectacular parents, or even having that amazing curly hair he adored of her mother's. She was so because she was _his_. As any parent would feel.

After a few minutes, he let go of her and stood back, holding her at arm's length and grinning proudly at her. "Jessica." She looked startled to hear him speak her name. "Your mum is right. You _are _beautiful." He released her and spun around to the console.

"You...You know who I am?" Jessica followed him over, leaning to try to see his face.

He was still grinning. In between maneuvering the TARDIS, he reached out and tapped her on the tip of her nose. "Of course I do. You're my daughter."

Jessica smiled and dropped her shoulders in relief. The tension of her situation melted away. Her mother told him! That meant she didn't have to. There was no more mistrust in his eyes. Only love, excitement, determination, and curiosity.

"She's your _what_?!" Amy called out. Both she and Rory gawked at him.

The Doctor waved a dismissive hand at them. "Daughter. Pay attention, Amy!"

"The Doctor has a daughter?" Rory blinked and looked from Jessica to the Doctor and back multiple times. "Yeah, I can see it." He finally acknowledged with a nod.

"Doctor..." Amy moved away from Rory and over to the Doctor. She leaned over the side of the console as Jessica had a moment ago. She rested a hand on his arm and peered up at him. "How do you suddenly have a nearly grown daughter? _Why _do you have a daughter?"

"It isn't sudden. It's timey wimey." He stopped short of pointing out that she should know all about having an instant daughter. Considering Amy's emotional state, he didn't think it wise to bring that point up.

He threw her a quick glance. "_Why_? Why do you and Rory insist on not using perfectly good bunk beds?" He retorted, pulling out of her grasp. He spun around again, pointing at her and Rory with both hands. "Ponds! Your stop." He pushed Amy lightly on the back, directing her toward the door. He took hold of Rory's shoulder as they passed him, and pulled him along as well.

He let go only when he got to the door. He dug around in his pocket and handed Rory a camera. "There. No matter what else happens, be sure to keep taking pictures, Rory!" He opened the door, and shoved them out. "Off you go, to memories!" He watched his friends turn to look at him, but he closed the door on their faces before they could start asking nonsense he didn't think was necessary answering. Little things companions always fussed at him about, like where they were, why they were there, when he'd be back for them, or what was going on.

He turned back around and saw Jessica staring at the console with a slight frown on her face and worry lines creasing her brow. The way she'd been staring at it so intensely for a while now, didn't escape him. Something was going on there, and he'd have to sort it. There was always something to sort out, and currently plenty of things. He liked sorting things out, though, so that worked out.

He glanced up to see River still watching the scene with a soft smile from above. He hurried up the stairs and his smile suddenly dropped.

River turned to look at him, her smile slipping at the sudden irritation on his face. He was frowning at her! "What it is, sweetie?" She asked worriedly.

"You had a baby."

"Yes, I did." She nodded.

"River, don't you realize how dangerous that is? For you?" He challenged, standing in front of her now. The thought of the sort of enemies that would go after a pregnant wife of his was terrifying to the Doctor.

River raised an eyebrow. He was going to lecture her about this? _Really_? "Danger has never stopped me before, why should it suddenly stop me now?"

"What about _her_?" He demanded, pointing towards the girl below who was preoccupied with the console. Jessica was quite used to her parents bickering and didn't seem to be paying them any attention.

"Well, I can't say I'm thrilled with the dangers facing our daughter, but what do you expect me to do about it?" She had expected this sort of reaction from the start, not after the fact, but she supposed it had finally sunk in. He was finally panicking because, as they both well knew, he couldn't possibly keep Jessica and River both completely safe under such circumstances.

"I expected you _not _to have a baby!" He groaned and rolled his eyes upwards in frustration. "River, why did you do this?" He was getting angrier. It showed in the gruff sound in his voice and the flash of his eyes.

River didn't look the least bit worried about the anger of the Time Lord. "Oh, it was all great fun!" Her eyes shone brightly at the memories. "There was no planning involved, if that's what you're thinking. In the midst of all that danger it was bound to happen. Guns blazing, enemies falling, you with your sonic. Nothing gets me more worked up than us in the middle of a battle and you..._Confident_." She actually shivered at the delightful memory. "Exquisite!"

The Doctor's face went through an array of expressions from intrigue to mortification at her implications. "River! How _could _you!"

"Doctor." She began as patiently as humanly possible. She reached out to pick some lint from his lapel. "A child doesn't get started with just _one_ person, you know." She struggled not to smirk at him. She leaned in and lowered her voice suggestively. "I'm not the only one who got worked up in the middle of that battle." She teased, giving him a wink.

The Doctor stood, mouth opened, sufficiently speechless. He could assume all he liked that she had simply pounced on him and not given him much of a chance to protest, but he knew well enough he was hardly protesting these days. It wasn't a stretch to imagine the days to come he would protest all the less.

River started speaking again, and it reminded him of his own thoughts the moment he learned that Jessica was his. "It's all worked out, hasn't it? We always fly into everything without regards to the danger of it, both of us. Even parenthood. Why wouldn't we? If we hadn't, Jessica wouldn't be alive. If she lived one day and died the next, at least she would have lived! You wouldn't take that from her? From us?" She pointed out.

She was right, of course. If the Doctor stopped doing things out of fear of causing those he loved to be in danger, he would never do anything ever again. It wasn't rational and it wasn't him. Or her. Plus, there was Jessica. Their little girl. She was worth it.

He calmed a great deal and slowly started smiling again. "Of course not."

River smiled and started moving in for another kiss.

The Doctor disrupted her by taking out his sonic. "No use standing about getting nostalgic when I've not even lived that bit yet." He reminded her, taking her wrist in his hand. "I gather that is a future version of our daughter, to you. You've got to return to storm cage and avoid spoilers."

"Oh, but-" River looked unhappy at that.

"Shh." He pressed a finger to his lips. He began using the sonic on her vortex manipulator, but paused long enough to kiss her cheek affectionately. "Don't worry, I'll visit you later, honey." He assured her sweetly. He knew the right thing to say for once. She disappeared in a flash of light with a bright smile on her face.

"Right. Now." He came back down to stand beside Jessica and gaze at the console along with her. "Jessica Amelia Song. What's so terrible about where you live that you'd run away?"

She tore her eyes from it and looked to him. "It's so boring! You and mum get to go traveling all about time and space! Even grandmother and grandfather have gotten to go on more adventures with you than I'll ever do!" She whined, as if this version of her father were the one who knew her best even though he'd only just met her. It was hard for her to keep it straight in her mind that he barely knew her at all yet, and was probably not very comfortable with her. Which was just as well. He wouldn't want her to keep thinking that way. She would need to be able to trust in him, no matter what.

He leaned slightly toward her, his eyes twinkling. "You tell a lie."

"No I don't!" Jessica's eyes widened.

"I've taken you on adventures. Or I will do."

"But not very much, and usually only by accident or when mum isn't around." She complained. "I get so bored with school and chores and telly. Can't I come with you? Just for a little while?" She pleaded, clutching her hands together.

The Doctor gave her a crooked smile. "Oh, Jessica, you don't need to come traveling with me to have adventures! You'll have many of your own if you're patient and wait for them. I know you already have had quite a few." As she suspected, he wasn't going to let her. But he also wasn't about to lecture her for running off. It just wasn't his style.

"But it's not the same as getting to stay with you!" Jessica sent her best big, sad eyes his way.

"Tell you what." The Doctor moved to lean back against the console, facing her. "I'd rather not have your mum chasing me across five Galaxies with a square gun. So lets you and me make a deal."

This got Jessica's attention. She stopped whining and waited, watching him.

"You please your mother by returning back to that boring old safe town, bring her good grades, give your grandparents hugs and kisses and all that stuff that mums get excited over, and I promise to give you more adventures."

"Really?" Jessica said doubtfully.

"Really." The Doctor agreed with a nod. "I know you have my phone number. That means you can always call me and I'll come."

"Okay..." She sighed reluctantly. "I guess I'll try. But you don't always come when I call."

"Let's not worry about that. Besides," He straightened up and reached out to take hold of her wrist as he had done to her mother a few minutes earlier. He held it up, revealing the still raw skin from the burned vortex manipulator. "If I don't, I have a feeling you'll come find me."

They exchanged youthful grins.

He let go of her wrist and turned back to the console. "Back home for you, Jessica." He aimed the TARDIS back to Jessica's time and this time to Leadworth.

"But what about the TARDIS?" Jessica asked from behind him. He glanced back at her. "What about it?"

"It keeps going wrong."

"Wrong?" He lifted his head to gaze up at the time rotor.

"Yeah." Jessica moved over beside him and pointed to a series of lights. "They were flickering and I finally got them stable, but there." She gestured to a small wheel. "Something seems stuck. Like the psychic matrix thingy won't stop draining the engines' power."

The Doctor frowned. He examined the controls intently. "Yes...There seems to be some sort message stuck in an endless loop. I'll have to fix that. But as for you." He pointed towards the door. "You're home. England, Upper Leadworth, 2051."

Jessica made a face. "Fine. But, don't forget your promise!" She gave him another of her puppy dog pleading looks.

The worry over what might be going on with the TARDIS temporarily left his features and was replaced with a caring smile. "Never." He promised.

Jessica hugged him again. "Thank you, Dad." She whispered, using the rare word she wasn't really supposed to use much. He didn't mind it at all. He laughed, heartily hugging her back.

She let go, giving the console one last, worried look, then turned and headed for the door. "Oh, and Dad?" She turned back to him. He nodded at her questioningly. "Where do babies come from?"

"Uh." The Doctor's face went white and he started shifting from one foot to the other. "Well, you see..." He wrung his hands. "It's got..." He wiped his forehead, as though he were sweating. "That's..."

Jessica couldn't take anymore. She started giggling. "Kidding! I know all about that stuff already. I just wanted to see you panic." She opened the TARDIS door and slipped out, shutting it behind her.

The Doctor stared after her, chuckled, and turned back to the console. He realized then that she didn't actually say how she learned about 'that stuff'. Would he have to ever teach her? Either way, she enjoyed keeping him on his toes! "She's just like her mother!" Which wasn't a bad thing.

He looked around the TARDIS and listened to the quiet hum of the engines. It was peaceful for the first time in a long time. But it was time to deal with whatever was clogging up the psychic matrix. He went downstairs and started rewiring the matrix's circuitry, to retrieve whatever message was stuck on it.

A couple of hours passed before the Doctor managed to get the circuitry worked out. He hurried back up to adjust the scanner. The message came through in dark mauve.

DEADLY CREATURES YOU'LL FORGET THE MOMENT YOU STOP LOOKING AT THEM. THEY KILLED JESSICA. THEY BLEW UP THE PONDS' HOUSE.

The Doctor stared at the message, a sick feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. It took him a moment to not panic over the idea that Jessica had been killed. The Ponds' house had been destroyed back when Jessica was a baby. That was when she'd been killed. But she regenerated and was safe now, he reminded himself. He thought back. Yes, he remembered the house imploding. And something about space ship pieces being strewn about in the debris. He remembered baby Jessica's slow death and River's stunned face. That brilliant woman had protected him yet again by making him leave so that he wouldn't have to suffer seeing Jessica's final moments, or being shocked with the realization of her regeneration before he'd even learned who she was. But he didn't remember any creatures, and this very message explained why.

No wonder the psychic matrix had been overloaded. It had been trying to cling to a desperate message he'd thrown at it during an extreme moment. He had been the one to overload the circuits. And Jessica had been the one to keep the TARDIS from being damaged and the people inside, safe. He felt another wave of guilt for having made her cry. He would have to make that up to her, but for now, he had other worries. Such as these so easily forgettable, _deadly_ creatures. What were they?

"Oh, you've got your serious face on." The Doctor jerked. He looked up. River stood back, near the stairs, looking at him excitedly.

"Hello, Sweetie! What's going on today then? An attack? Oh, please tell me it's something I can use my gun for!"

The Doctor lifted a finger, and opened his mouth to speak, when gunfire went off. The Doctor ducked. A spark flew off the console as it was hit directly where he'd just been standing. He looked at River. Had she actually shot his TARDIS again?!

No, he calculated. The sound had come from a different direction and she wouldn't have had time to move that quickly.

He saw that River's own gun and eyes were trained on something behind him.

He straightened up and turned slowly, eyes wide.

A little girl, not more than seven, stood near the TARDIS doors. She was pointing a gun directly at him. The little girl had familiar bouncy dark curls framing her small, blank face.

"Jessica." He breathed.

River stared coldly at the little girl. "Who is Jessica?"

He looked from her to River. River still had her gun on the girl. "River! _Don't you dare_!"

"I don't know who or what she is, Doctor, but she just tried to kill you." River said darkly, ready to kill the child.

It was no time for River to not be aware of her own daughter! The Doctor understood immediately that this must have been a younger version of River. Before she became a mother. She didn't know Jessica yet.

He was about to answer her when he heard the click of the gun behind him.

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, that's a rotten place to leave off. I'm bad like that. Sneak preview: The Doctor is going to get hurt. Bad. River gets her heart shattered (not literally) by something the Doctor doessays to her. The Ponds are having some troubles of their own. None of this will necessarily happen in that order. **


	12. Destruction

**Thank you very much for the kind and considerate reviews.**

**I do adore reviews. Please review? :)**

* * *

><p>The Doctor had an inkling that no matter which of his choices he dived into, something very bad was about to occur. As long as he was the only one it happened to, he was okay with that.<p>

He twisted around to swiftly place himself distinctly between River's aim and Jessica's body. He was now fully facing Jessica. River could shoot him all she liked, it wouldn't matter to him at this point. He was almost most definitely kind of positive she wouldn't do that, but there was no saying for sure when it came to his wife.

Jessica shifted her gun slowly to follow the Doctor's movements. He gave her a once over to evaluate her current possible state of mind. Her eyes were dull. The light of intelligent thought that ought to shine brightly in them was missing. Some sort of outside control or brainwashing was going on here.

He moved towards her. "Give me the gun." He said anxiously, reaching out toward the little girl with a hand as he slowly stepped closer to her.

"Doctor, get away from her!" River demanded worriedly. She, too, stepped forward, but her sole intentions were to protect the Doctor.

The Doctor glanced back. He kept trying to keep himself between River and Jessica, which River wasn't making very easy. He would have to do something before she shot her own child._ Their _child.

A loud explosive sound ricocheted off the side of the TARDIS as Jessica's gun went off in the Doctor's direction and missed him by quite a bit this time. He jerked, and River attempted to hurry around him, eager to dispose of anyone who was trying to kill the Doctor.

"River, _no_!" The Doctor lunged forward and snapped the gun from the child's hand, shoving her quickly behind himself protectively as he kept pushing River away lightly. He held the gun out, dangling it, and glanced back at Jessica. "Good thing you're not as good a shot as..."_ Your mum_. He laughed, then remembered River was still there and his smile slipped. He looked up just in time to see her edging around him.

"Doctor, move out of the way...Let me do this." River said shakily. The Doctor pushed her lightly with a hand, shaking his head as he emptied the gun of it's bullets and dropped it for now.

The little girl appeared uninfluenced by the Doctor's actions. She ignored his attempts at protecting her, seemingly blind to whatever River and he were doing. She started digging in a pocket of her little yellow jacket and tugged something small and black out.

"River, you don't understand, she's-"

"Got a grenade." River supplied, eyes narrowing as the Doctor pushed her lightly back each time she attempted to get around to the girl, and kept moving to keep himself in front of her gun.

His eyes grew large. "A-A _what_?" He sputtered with genuine surprise. He looked back and saw the grenade. It still had a pin in place. He caught a flash of metal from the corner of his eye. River was lifting her gun. She was a good shot and was not likely to miss at all. She was obviously still quite young on her own timeline and not thinking things like this through very well.

He had little choice. He needed to protect their child. He also needed to protect River from doing something she could never forgive herself for. He knew she wouldn't stop trying to kill Jessica and he wouldn't have time to work out what was wrong with their daughter if he had to spend his time protecting her from her own mother. That wouldn't do at all.

In the overwhelming state of things, he hadn't time to think what else to do. River was too good with her gun and the child too vulnerable for him to take the time to find the least damaging way to handle things for all involved. He couldn't let her know who she was too soon. His mind latched onto what he knew without a doubt would end River's actions.

He allowed his darkest thoughts to overtake him. A thing he would not ordinarily do and certainly didn't ever do voluntarily. Except now. Being the last of his kind with one precious seed of hope to hold onto was more than enough motivation for the Time Lord.

A Time Lord who had brought down entire civilizations. To say that he never enjoyed it would be a lie. While he mourned those lost, he also reveled in the power of having control over the fate of so many. It was a feeling he didn't care to admit to. He was kind enough to be ashamed of it. But he knew well enough how to use and abuse such a power.

His eyes darkened as they landed on River's. As a man who had done whatever it took to win the most fearsome of wars in the universe's history, he knew exactly what it would take to bring River Song down.

He reached out rather suddenly and grabbed her forcefully by her lower arms. She gasped as he yanked her to him, causing her to stumble and her gun to fly from her fingers. It clattered to the floor and slid a short distance away.

Their faces were almost touching as she stared at him with wide eyes. It wasn't often that the Doctor got the better of River. "You're no longer welcome on board my TARDIS." He told River with such a cool, uncaring tone that were Amy present, she would have gladly slapped him for it. River might very well have slapped him herself were he to release his tight grip on her arms. His fingers were digging into her skin, hurting her.

"Doctor, I-"

"I want you to leave now." His voice was dangerously quiet now. A tone River knew well.

She didn't know what had brought on this sudden rage in him, but she wasn't about to let this alone stop her from saving him. "Doctor, if you think I'm leaving you alone to be killed, _again_, you've-"

"River Song!" He interrupted and began to brutally drag her toward the doors. He could feel her tugging to break free and knew she would do what it took to do so if it meant saving his life. He had to act now, or it would be too late.

He pulled River close and whispered into her ear. The words were so vicious, so violently startling to the woman, she visibly twitched. It took her half a second to compose herself enough to voice anything. "You...You can't mean that, Doctor." _Rule one_, she reminded herself.

"Look into my eyes." He demanded. She complied. River's eyes were sparkling with tears. There it was. His words right there in truths displayed for her to see. The absolute revulsion in his eyes was waiting right there for her. Still, she couldn't accept it. She refused to believe what she was seeing and what he was saying.

"You can't feel that way about me." She insisted tearfully, but firmly.

The Doctor saw little Jessica's hand come away from the grenade with the pin. Time was becoming a bigger problem. There just wasn't any. He focused on the woman he cared so deeply for. Every ounce of darkness in him was summoned up for her and her alone.

He shook her arms. His mouth set in a grim smirk. "But I do. I'm obligated to you because I'm best friends with your parents. But you've forced yourself into my life. What ever made you think I would want anything to do with you otherwise?"

Those unshed tears of hers started to fall. "But you whispered into my ear when you were dying! You said-"

"I _lied."_ He re-enforced his words with another tug at her arms before releasing his hold on her. He had her backing away from him now. "I said what I had to, to get you to be a good girl and use up your regenerative energy to save me. Saving my life and saving me lifetimes of dealing with _you_. Killing two birds with one stone as they say. You're a chore, a _burden_, River. Nothing more." He threw the words at her, cutting into her heart as deeply as any knife ever could.

At the word burden, River turned and rushed to the door, trying clumsily to open it while hiding her tears. She didn't want to wait to use her vortex manipulator. She could do so as soon as she was clear of the TARDIS and the Doctor. Then she could have time to cry her heart out and come to terms with what this meant for her. She wouldn't dare let him see her a sobbing mess. She was out the door as the grenade landed at the Doctor's feet.

Giving no thought to anything but keeping Jessica safe from the grenade, the Doctor was in the air as soon as it hit the floor. He dove at Jessica who stood off to the side. She stared at the wall. The Doctor collided with her small form and knocked her to the stairs leading under the console the instant the TARDIS was rattled with the explosion.

The Doctor felt a sharp burning pain hit his back. Debris rained down upon him. He knew the TARDIS could repair herself though it might take some time, but it still stung to see her being damaged like this. He didn't take the time to cover his own head. He started crawling amidst the fire and smoke, toward the stairs. He'd seen Jessica's little form disappear down there and he wanted to make sure she was okay. Before he could get there, an acute pain created a spattering of stars before his eyes and then everything went black.

Before he could see, the Doctor was aware. His mind was working. He was thinking back to baby Jessica and the implosion at Amy and Rory's house. He came to several conclusions about what had happened, and why this was happening now.

He slowly opened his eyes to the floor. Jessica was not underneath it from what he could see through the smear of red and glass. He winced in pain. His head lay in a pool of blood. Off to the side lay the piece of railing that had slammed into the back of his head. He slowly turned over onto his back, only to find the pain in his back very uncomfortable. The heat from the explosion had seared the back of his shirt and jacket and skin.

"Jessica?" He coughed, taking note that he had no deadly injuries. He slowly shifted to his side to relieve the pain from his back. As he did so, the child appeared. She was climbing up the stairs. So he must not have blacked out for too long. "Jessica." It came out a bit breathlessly.

She had that same blank expression. Her knee and elbow were scraped up from her fall down the stairs, but unlike a normal child, even a part Time Lord child, who would be crying, she held no expression at all. It was disturbing. She approached him slowly.

"Jessica..." The Doctor pushed himself into a sitting position, which was no small feat. He reached out when she was in arm''s length distance and gently took her by the shoulders. He pulled her closer to him to stare into her eyes. "They've gotten into your head..." He murmured angrily.

His hands moved up to clasp her head. One of her hands moved from inside her pockets. It pulled out her mother's gun she'd scooped up while her parents were talking. He didn't take his eyes off of hers. "Oh, Jessica, have you not figured out yet, you're a terrible shot, and your old dad is far too hard to kill. Just ask your lovely mum." He winced, thinking of River. He reached down and plucked the gun from Jessica's fingers. He disarmed it, frowning at it as the sharp reminder of what he'd just done to River flashed through his mind and burned through his hearts. He tucked the gun away.

"Now, let's see what you're hiding in pocket number two. I see you take after me. You like roomy pockets, too. Bigger on the inside, are they?" He asked lightly as he reached for the hand she still had hidden away in her other pocket. He carefully took hold of her hand and pulled it free of her pocket. Clasped in her little hand was a strange silver disk. The Doctor took hold of it and blinked at it. "Interesting. Wonder what that's about, aye?" A bright light emitted from the disk and flashed directly into his eyes. He stiffened and screamed in sudden agony.

He dropped it and clutched at his head, reeling in severe pain. The disk had sent a toxin directly into his blood stream through a series of electric impulses coded directly to infuse with his own DNA alone. He had to cure it, but before he could, his child was lifting up a smaller piece of the broken railing and throwing it against his skull again. The Doctor could do nothing to prevent the sudden loss of consciousness that overtook him once more.

The pain was excruciating. The Doctor groaned weakly. His head throbbed. His body's systems were ringing every alarm bell. He was dying. Again. He felt a sharp pain as the broken railing hit against his side. His hand moved up and caught it mid-air before it could hit him yet again. He grabbed it and yanked it roughly from her tight little grasp. He flung it away and slowly opened his eyes. "You really should stop trying to kill me. You're not very good at it, Jessica." He laughed, coughing and sputtering as he rolled over and forced himself to his knees.

His vision swam before his eyes. He didn't have much time at all. He could feel the toxic substance. It had already infected one heart, effectively stopping it, and the other wasn't far off.

Before death took him, he would have very much liked to have saved his daughter, apologized to his wife, and said goodbye to his best friends. He didn't think he would have time for all of those things, so he focused on the first.

He shuffled forward and gently took his daughter's head in his hands. He forced his way into her mind, through the veil that had taken over it. His telepathic abilities were moderate at best, but he had to try. He saw that she'd been blocked from being able to control her own actions. She was being fed a series of thoughts forced into her and compelling her to actions. Those actions all centered on ending his life and nothing more. Like a puppet on a string, she had no choice but to act.

He severed the link that was feeding her by blocking it with his own mind. They hadn't expected that, apparently. Jessica was a child and not one who knew her own talents, so she had no way to fight back, but he did. He blocked them from her mind and secured her vulnerable brain from further abuses from outer influences such as those creatures that didn't wish to be remembered, as best he could manage. He gently eased her back into control of her own mind.

Jessica's awareness had always been there on some level. She was terribly aware of what she'd done. She blinked at the pale faced man before her. "Daddy?" She backed away from him. He let his hands drop away from her.

"It's okay, Jessica. You're okay now." He smiled at her.

Horrified, Jessica could only stare.

The Doctor looked around. The TARDIS was a mess. She would need a great deal of time to repair herself. It was doubtful she would be able to go anywhere any time soon. Much less any place where he might be able to find a cure. He coughed hard. He used his hands to push himself up to his feet and staggered into the console. Jessica flinched. "Daddy!" She ran to his side to try to help him. Her little arms moved to try to help lift his side up. He smiled down at her, refusing to give in to the pain. It really had been a long time since anyone had called him that.

He lifted a hand and patted her hair. "Don't look so worried. I've been worse." He clutched at the console and covered his mouth with a hand. He didn't dare let her see that he'd just coughed up blood. Not especially now that he saw the silent tears running down the child's face. Silent crying was a very bad sign in one as young as her.

The Doctor bent to place a kiss to the top of her head while he wiped his hand out of sight on a pants' leg. "You be a good girl and go wait outside the TARDIS for your mum." He told her softly.

"You're hurt, dad-Doctor." She corrected herself. She always forgot even when she'd been raised to call him Doctor. In moments of extreme emotion is just slipped out. Dad and daddy tended to come out naturally. She saw that the TARDIS was hurt too. She'd done that. She hurt her daddy and his ship. She didn't understand why she'd done that. She loved them so very much.

"Oh, I'll be alright. Go on now. I'm sure your mum, or your grandmother and grandfather will be along soon." He advised. He pushed gently on her shoulder, trying to usher her towards the door even though he could barely keep his own self upright.

Jessica felt herself being turned toward the door. She looked up over her shoulder at the smiling face of her father. His warm eyes were full of nothing but love, yet she was sure he had to be in lots of pain. She didn't want to leave him.

He knew she was scared, sad, and upset. He also knew he was hardly in a position to comfort the child. He feared her being stranded alone in the healing TARDIS with him dead. She didn't need to see that. He forced his feet forward, using her shoulders to lean on a bit as he kept pushing her toward the door.

"If I'm good, can I stay?" Jessica asked. "Want me to call mum? Gran? Grandpa?" She asked, reaching in a pocket to search for her mobile. She was too young to yet know the right words to say.

"No need." The Doctor shook off the suggestion. "Unless they don't come for you soon. Then yes, by all means." They got to the door. He was sure he'd stopped on Earth, near her time, but knew little else than that about their current location. "Go on then." He opened the door and could just see a neighborhood laid out before them. "Go home if we're near there. Or call for them to come get you." He grabbed at the wall to lean against it and forced another smile for her when she turned back to him.

Her tears were still falling. "I'm sorry I'm bad." She said with such earnest that the Doctor would have shed a few tears himself for her were he not in such bad shape. He was breathing a bit heavily now. He dropped to his knees. It was surprisingly easy to let himself fall like that. He pulled the small girl into a big hug. He patted her back and kissed the side of her head. "You're not bad." He said quietly as he cradled her head. "Jessica Song, you remember this. You're a good girl. You're always a good girl." He assured her.

He let her go after running an affectionate hand through her hair. "Go on. Go home." He told her cheerfully.

Jessica knew her father was hurt. She didn't know he was dying. He needed help. But she nodded like a good girl. "Okay. Bye-bye!" She gave him her best smile and waved before stepping out the door and closing it behind herself. She looked around. She knew this place. It was her street, but it looked different. It was probably a wrong time so she would have to phone mum. She wanted to call her anyway and ask her to help her dad. The Doctor was hurt and she had to get him help. _Rule One. Mum and Dad lie._ He might have lied about being okay. He didn't look okay, so he probably wasn't. He needed help. She didn't care that he said not to. She was going to tell her mother anyway.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor had collapsed next to the TARDIS doors, his body convulsing.

_Florida. Sometime in the 1960s. _

Bright flashes went off in the darkened room. Amy blinked and stared at her husband. They looked to one another in confusion. "Rory?" She stepped over and touched his hair uncertainly. "What's going on?"

Rory looked Amy over. Something was different. What was it? He shook his head. "Memories and pictures." He reminded her, trying to cling to whatever it was they were attempting to do. They were alone in a child's room. It was an unfamiliar place even though they'd been there a good long while now. The Silence were consistently erasing their minds just enough to confuse the couple.

They heard giggles and looked down to a small child of no more than five playing with some old fashioned looking doll on the floor. Her plain brown hair hung loosely around her face. She looked up at the couple. Amy looked back at her baffled.

Rory gestured toward the girl. "Amy, get down by her so I can take pictures." He told his wife. The only thing he was sure of, was he needed to keep taking pictures for Amy. He had promised her memories of time with their child. He knew somehow that was related to this child. He was pretty sure it was Melody, but things kept changing. He had brief memories of an infant being cradled in his wife's arms, and then a toddler, and now this older girl. It was all very confusing.

Amy wasn't any less confused than Rory. In between being blinded by camera flashes, she had a blur of images she couldn't place or understand. Despite this, she trusted Rory and he seemed to have a plan, so she did as he requested. She knelt down next to the little girl who stiffened up at her presence beside her.

"Smile for the camera." Amy told the little girl. Melody looked uncomfortable and uncertain when Amy placed an arm around her shoulders. Rory gave the pair a reassuring smile. Melody slowly smiled for them. It was quite confusing really. Her life was this. Flashes. Brief moments, most of which made little to no connection in her mind. She knew these people were her parents. They'd told her so even though they kept forgetting that themselves. They felt like strangers to her even though they seemed ever present sometimes, and nowhere other times. Weren't kids with parents allowed to live with them full time? Why did she have to stay in a dark old orphanage all alone all the time even for their visits? Didn't they want to take her home with them?

She thought about asking them such things, but dared not for fear it would scare them off and they'd never come back. As much as she didn't trust them, she'd become familiar with their presence at the very least and didn't want to lose that.

"Got it." Rory nodded. He'd snapped several photos. "Why don't we have dinner?" He suggested, reaching an arm down to help Amy to her feet. She nodded with a quick smile. "Yeah. As a family." She remembered just as quickly as she kept forgetting. The Silence were slowly damaging the Ponds' minds. She held a hand down for Melody. "We'll go down and make a big Scottish meal together."

Melody looked at the offered hand. She got to her feet, but didn't take Amy's hand. She may have known these people were her parents as they claimed, but she didn't feel quite that cozy with them. "Okay." She tried to imagine what it would be like, cooking a meal with her parents like a normal family. It was something she desperately wanted. She had other memories of her parents promising such things, but they never did them.

Just as they went out the door, two of the Silence appeared in the hall, stopping the three Ponds in their tracks.

"My god, what are they?!" Rory exclaimed, looking at the two creatures as he clutched his wife's hand. He turned to look at her and she, at him. They smiled calmly at one another after blinking. The little girl behind them looked up at them and blinked as well. She watched them turn and walk down the hallway, seemingly forgetting their promise to her again.

Just as they often seemed to do, they would probably roam around for a while before they wandered back into her room and remembered her again. She'd seen similar signs in Mr. Renfro who ran the orphanage. He was the sweetest man, but he forgot things so very easily. Maybe whatever sickness that poor man suffered, these two suffered from too.

Amy and Rory were confused, but trusted the Doctor. Rory knew he had to get memories for Amy and that he had to take lots and lots of pictures. He couldn't always quite keep a grasp on just why anymore. They'd been here too long now. His hair had grown long. His clothes had been changed and he couldn't remember changing them. Amy's too. He was sure the Doctor had only just dropped them off moments ago. So how had they changed clothes? The clothes were old fashioned. Amy in a dark green long dress and Rory in gray slacks with a polka dotted blue shirt. He couldn't remember where they'd gotten such clothes. Neither could Amy.

They were in a kitchen, but both felt they were forgetting something important. They couldn't quite remember what that something was. A flash of lightning from outside got their attention. It hadn't been been storming, they thought.

"Hello mum and dad." Rory, standing in front of the sink, turned around to face the doorway where the figure stood. Amy, who was standing over the stove, turned to look as well. A very grown up River stood looking at them with a broad smile.

"River? What-"

"No time for a chat, Dad." She told them brightly. "Just came by to give you something." She held up a gun and pointed it directly at Rory's chest.

* * *

><p><strong>Don't you hate it when I do that? Please let me know what you thought of this chapter. As for the next one, you'll just have to wait and see. No sneak previews this time around. <strong>


End file.
